


50 Shades of Honor

by madamebomb



Series: D/s Duology [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Light BDSM, Sexual Content, Strong sexual content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-27
Updated: 2015-10-03
Packaged: 2018-04-23 14:53:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 57,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4881073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madamebomb/pseuds/madamebomb
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Suki and Zuko's relationship takes an erotic turn, opening them both up to a world of dominance, submission and sexual freedom. D/s</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Frustration!

**Author's Note:**

> The title is obviously a play on 50 Shades of Grey, mostly because I thought it would be funny and because of the BDSM angle, but they're not connected.

“Suki…”

I loved the way he said my name, the way shivers burst to life down my spine and my nipples sprang to life in response. Every inch of me ached for him.  _Calm down_ , I told mentally coached myself, but it didn’t work. It never did.

He just had that effect on me, and it was only getting worse.

“Yes, Zuko?” I asked, standing at his elbow as he bent over his desk. His hair was down and mussed from his fingers. The line of his shoulders was tight and I could see his jaw tensing, white streaks running up the hollow of his cheekbones and into the mottled scar tissue on his left eye.

It had been a long day in the council chambers, a long day just like the day before and the day before that. How long could he keep going, pushing himself into exhaustion and anger? The Fire Nation was in turmoil almost daily. He never had time to himself, and I could see the strain of it all dragging him down.

And there was nothing I could do about it.

“You were in the council chambers with me. Did you see anything, any way to get out of this contract with the shipbuilders that my father signed?”

The contract in question was spread before him. The text was tiny and strained the eyes to look at. Zuko had been pouring over it for days. Sometime before the end of his reign, Ozai had signed some ironclad deal with the most powerful shipbuilding company in the Fire Nation, and they’d continued to produce warships for the Fire Nation; warships that were no long necessary. They were demanding their money, and demanding that the Fire Nation take the unnecessary ships they’d already completed—and a hundred more that had yet to be built.

“I’m no lawyer,” I said uncertainly.

“I know,” Zuko said, turning to face me. Our eyes met and I felt another distinct thrill go through me at his nearness.  “But I trust your judgment.”

I smiled a little and bent over the document, all too aware of Zuko doing the same. His breath stirred against my neck and I swallowed, biting on the inside of my lip. I tried to concentrate on the contract and all of the nonsensical legalese, but the pull of his warmth proved too distracting. From what I understood, the contract was watertight.

“I don’t see anything,” I said, turning to face him, only to see him watching me with hooded eyes. He was close enough to kiss. The impulse to do so filled me and I had to back off a few inches not to give in to my raging hormones. Instead, I pushed my hair away from my neck and enjoyed the way he stared at me. “ You could always try and negotiate a new contract. They have to understand that the ships aren’t needed.”

“Right,” he said bitterly, grabbing his copy of the contract and wadding it up. He tossed it across the room. “Because they’ve been so cooperative before this. They just want their money and they don’t care how it looks for the Fire Nation to be gathering so many warships when we’re supposed to be at peace. The rest of the world still doesn’t trust us and this kind of thing could completely damage our reputation.”

“And then there’s the cost…”

“Fuck,” Zuko snarled, pushing away from the desk. He paced the room a few times, his head in his hands. I knew that move. He was getting overwhelmed with the stress of running the Nation. I’d seen it too many times before. He needed an outlet, something to expel all of his energy and rage…

He kicked at one of the footstools littering his office and sent it tumbling. I winced.

“Zuko, calm down.”

He turned on me and shrugged casually, even though his whole body was a powder keg about to blow. I could see the tension in his shoulders. “I  _am_  calm.”

“No, you’re not. You’re stressed out.”

“I am  _not._ ”

“Are too!”

“AM NOT,” he said and stomped back toward me. I grinned to myself. Sometimes what he needed was an argument, something to focus on other than the big stresses of his life…and this little dance between us had served to defuse him on several occasions, though it wasn’t doing me much good. I was about to go out of my skin with want. Our mild flirting was almost constant these days. It had started slowly at first, in little comments, but we’d started moving into all-out innuendo of the past couple of weeks and frankly, I was about to do something crazy to end the dance (a dance I wasn’t even sure he was serious about) by crawling naked and shameless straight into his bed.

Needless to say, Zuko wasn’t the only one frustrated these days.

“Are too,” I drawled slowly, nibbling my lower lip.

Zuko’s gaze was on my mouth, right where I wanted it. He moved in, crowding me as he reached around me and put his hands on the edge of the desk. Our bodies were as close as they could be without touching. His scent filled me, the heat of his eyes like fiery suns. He was breathing a little harder than normal, and his gaze was  _still_ on my mouth.

 _Don’t look at me like that if you’re not going to kiss me_ , I thought with a thread of agony in my spine. Zuko was good at that. That, “I want you but maybe I don’t, maybe I’m just really unintentionally sexy and intense” thing. It took all of my strength not to jump him. I don’t think I’d ever been as sexually frustrated as I had been the last couple of months.

I blamed him.

“I am  _not_  stressed out,” he said through his teeth.

“Are too.”

“Shut up.”

“Make me.”

Zuko’s lips quirked up and I saw a flash of his tongue as he ran it along the corner of his mouth.

“Don’t tempt me,” he growled and pushed away from the desk.  _You don’t even know the meaning of temptation, Fire Lord…_

Zuko backed up and stared at me for a long moment, an inscrutable look on his face. Then he sighed and sank down onto another footstool. He put his head in his hands, rubbing at his eyes. “You’re right though. I am stressed. You’re always right, Suki.”

“It’s one of my more annoying traits,” I said, walking over to him. He jumped when I put my hands on his shoulders, but relaxed with an exhale when my fingers found the knots in his muscles.

“You’re not annoying. And I’m going to need you to  _never_  stop doing that… Mmm…that feels good…”

“I could do it all night if you want me to,” I said and smiled again as he half turned to look at me, and then moaned when the heel of my palm pressed into the tense cord of his shoulder muscle. He went a little limp beneath me, rolling his neck to work out the kinks.

“Careful. I might just take you up on that offer…” he said lightly, a warning tone in his voice.

“Why do you think I made it?”

I saw his neck flush red. He hitched a breath and I saw his hands clench against his thighs. He swallowed and glanced back at me. “You’re serious?”

My pulse jumped and I licked my lips.

“Definitely,” I drawled. 

Zuko reached up and closed his hand over mine on his shoulder. He half-turned to face me and said in a low voice. “Maybe I could, uh… do you next?”

My whole body shook with a sudden spike of desire. I tried to play it cool. I’m pretty sure I failed beautifully, because Zuko’s eyes flashed.

 _Screw it,_  I thought,  _just going for it_. I tossed caution to the wind. Things were either about to get very weird and awkward…or very hot and awesome.

I met his gaze and went for the throat. “Or maybe you could just bend me over and fuck me instead?”

His smile was slow and simmering, a hot, desirous light sparking deep within the amber depths. His gaze moved down my body slowly and then came back to my face. That look practically melted me on the spot.

“I’d love to.”

And he half-turned on the footstool, grabbing me around the waist and yanking me into his lap. I squealed, taken off-guard by… _well_ , everything.

Imagine my surprise. I’d wanted to seduce him for months now, but I hadn’t wanted to cross that line…unsure if he’d even want me to. He was my friend, my ex-boyfriend’s friend and oh yeah,  _my employer!_

Suddenly sprawled across his lap, all of that seemed pretty stupid and also very unimportant. I wanted him. I’d wanted him for a long time and all of a sudden I was getting what I wanted. My head spun.

He pushed forward, intending on claiming my mouth, but I pulled back at the last second. He chased me, his chin tilting and his mouth open. He groaned as I darted forward, bit down on his lower lip and tugged it with a playful growl.

When I released him, he tried to kiss me again, but again I moved back at the last second. He breathed out, shaking in place. I could see the frustration on his face, and feel it in the way his hands clutched my hips.

“You’re so serious all of the time, Zuko. You need to learn how to play,” I teased as our lips brushed. He vibrated beneath me, his hand pushing into my short hair.

“We’ve been playing with each other for too long,” he said and then he kissed me for real.

 _Hnnng._  He was definitely _not_  playing with me right now. He was as serious as a gut wound. And he could  _kiss_. It was so good that it  _had_  to be illegal.

His mouth moved against mine shallowly, with hot, needy intention. My arm was around his neck and I pushed myself into him, like I wanted to crawl beneath his skin. Little fingers of desire raced through me as his hand clenched my hip. His tongue traced the outline of my lips and I opened to him, drawing him inside with a deep press. He tasted wonderful.

I kissed him back just as hard, my tongue rolling gently against his. But that wasn’t what he wanted. His kiss had a bite to it. A need. And I answered his call eagerly, my hands clenching in his hair. It wasn’t enough. Not for either of us.

My heart pounding, I pulled away from him, turned in place and straddled his lap with both legs. The better to get at his addictive mouth. Zuko welcomed me back into his arms with a groan. He nipped my lips and then bathed me in the hot, dark sin of his mouth.

His hands were all over me, clutching my hips, sliding up my back and in my hair. My hands curled into his shaggy black hair, his hands warm as they clenched on my waist for one long moment. My heart was pounding out of my chest. What the hell were we doing?

Oh, but I knew.

Just like I knew that the door wasn’t locked. That it was still business hours, so to speak. Anyone could come along and find us groping like teenagers in the middle of his office.

Every single fuck I had to give faded the moment Zuko’s hand got up my skirt, and his fingers spread on the outside of my thigh. His hot hands were like a brand.

Nope. They could find us naked and going at it like howling wolf-bats and I wouldn’t care one damned bit.

My hips ground down against his and I was rewarded with a harsh groan from his throat. His hand kneaded my thigh, though with all of the layers of my uniform, I knew he couldn’t do much more than that at the moment.

I could feel his cock beneath my crotch though, swelling at the pressure and warmth of my body. I kissed him hard, frantically. He didn’t seem to mind. He was kissing me back just as hard, his other hand urging my hips on.

When I pulled back, gasping for air, his mouth attached to my neck and my eyes practically rolled back into my head as waves of pleasure rolled through me.

“Mmmm…Zuko…”

He nipped my neck and I felt a hot, jagged jolt of pleasure blast through me. I surged on his lap, pushing my breasts against his chest, jerking him back to my mouth. I suckled his tongue between my lips, flicking the tip of his with my own. Zuko groaned and I had a wonderful, terrible idea.

My hand worked down between our bodies and into the front of his pants. He made an interested noise that turned into a deeply flattering groan as my fingers skimmed the ridge of his cock. I kissed him hard, and then slid off of his lap and to the floor between his knees.

Zuko was breathless, but amused as I pulled back. “What are you doing?”

“What do you think I’m doing?” I shot at him with a grin, unlacing his pants as he bent over me. He gently cupped my face and brought me in for a lingering kiss as my fingers pushed his fly open and then worked into the opening.

I nipped his lower lip and pulled back a little, grinning at the red flush in his cheeks. My fingers encircled him for a moment, loving the slightly glazed expression in his eyes. He twitched, his hips pushing forward off of the footstool a little.

“Suki…” Zuko breathed into my hair as I pulled his cock from his pants, pushing them down his hips a little bit ore. I eyed him for a moment. He didn’t come up wanting. My gaze flicked up and met his for a white-hot moment, my tongue sliding along my bottom lip.

Then I licked my palm and fingers and wrapped my hand around the head of his cock. He let out a shuddering breath, glancing at the door with a paranoid flick. I didn’t care about the damned door. I just wanted to suck his cock.

I squeezed him in my slippery fist, pumping my hand up and down his shaft in short strokes. Zuko swallowed heavily, reaching out and sliding his thumb along my lower lip. I watched pleasure roll across his face, feeling… _powerful._  I was doing this to him. And he loved it.

When I lowered my face to his cock, I heard him mumbled something unintelligible, and his hand slid into my hair, gently guiding me toward him, though I didn’t need the help. I kissed the blunt head of his cock, and then my tongue darted out, tasting him with a soft, slow, swirling lick.

He was tangy with salt and he smelled…fucking amazing. I breathed him in as I let my tongue play along the rim of his head, sliding up ward and gently pressing into the slit at the tip. Zuko surged into my lips and I obliged him my sliding the tip of his cock into my mouth.

I sucked on him, hard, my tongue swirling, my hand pumping at the base of his shaft. When I pulled of him, he quivered. His fingers massaged the back of my neck; I glanced up at him and saw that he was watching me with his mouth slightly parted. There was sweat on his stubbled upper lip.

I watched him through slit eyes as I let my lips slide along the underside of his shaft. I drove the tip of my tongue into the pliable skin at the bottom of his shaft, and then suckled one of his balls into my mouth.

“ _Tssss_ …” he hissed through his teeth, his hips lifting off of the footstool. I rolled him around in my mouth, letting his musky scent and delicious taste flood my senses. When I released him, I immediately sucked his cock between my lips, pushing my mouth down on him until my jaw ached. “Suki… _guh_ … You feel just like I imagined…”

He’d fantasized about me giving him a blow job, huh? Well, that made two of us.

I was through playing around.

I pulled back a little, breathing through my nose as I worked my mouth up and down in shallow thrusts. My hand followed, squeezing him in tiny little pumps of my fist. I noticed that the paint on my lips was leaving a red print at the base of his cock and thrilled at the prospect of leaving my mark on him for him to see later.

“Mmmm…” I moaned as he touched the back of my throat. I opened my eyes glanced up at him. He was still watching me and there was a look of deep concentration on his face. He was biting his lower lip and his hips shifted forward and up in the tiniest of movements with every bob of my head.

I pulled off of him and wrapped both hands around his slippery, throbbing length. I jerked him off, hard, watching the way his eyes rolled back in his head. He nearly doubled over, his hips rising up off of the footstool. Then he collapsed backward, his head hanging off the other side.

“ _Spirits_ … Don’t stop…” he strangled out as I slid one hand down and massaged his balls. They twitched and tightened in my fingers and I grinned. His hand tangled in my hair and he guided my mouth back to him with a rough shove that I didn’t mind in the least.

I’d never seen him like this before. I hadn’t known he could be like this, though our sexually charged flirting had certainly hinted at it. I wondered what fucking him would be like.

I fully intended to find out.

I went down on him again and again, faster and faster, the air filled with the wet sounds of my mouth on him. He sat back up at some point, his fingers sliding along my jaw as I worked him. I looked up and our gazes met with a hot sizzle.

When he pulled me off of him, I was breathless and gasping. He kissed me, hard, his mouth slamming to mine. It was a wet kiss, messy, my saliva smearing across both of our faces. My hand worked him as he groaned into my smeared lips. He suckled my tongue inside of his mouth and pulled on it several times, mimicking the motion I’d been using on his cock.

_Oh, you sexy bastard…_

When he released me, I gasped against his mouth, “I want to make you come, Zuko.”

He didn’t need any convincing, nipping my chin and then moaning when I bent back down and sucked him back into my mouth. My fist pumped him, hard and fast as I sucked on the tip of his cock. I could feel little tremors going through him.

“Right like that…” he mumbled and I flushed red, pleased at his encouragement. My movements became faster as I strove to please him. I just wanted him to feel something good. He deserved _something_  good in his life, some sort of relief from the never-ending bullshit I saw him deal with throughout the course of his day.

When I nipped the rim of his head, it set off a chain reaction in him and I delighted in it. Zuko cursed, his knees tightening on my ribs, the weight of his hand in my hair increasing. His hips rose and he filled my mouth with a hard thrust. I pushed into his thrust, my tongue undulating against him, pushing into the ridge of a heavy vein. I loved it. Loved the feel of him in my mouth, hard and thick.

I gagged when he touched the back of my throat and he withdrew, sinking back onto the footstool. He was breathing hard as I pulled off of him with a gasp, saliva stringing from my lips to him. “Sorry…sorry.”

“Don’t be,” I said, licking my wet lips as I gently played with him. “I like it when you fuck my mouth.”

I’m not sure what it was about him that made me so delightfully filthy, but he didn’t seem to mind. In fact, it seemed to turn him on even more.

“ _Fuck,_  don’t say that. You’re gonna make me come…” he squeezed out and I laughed, low and husky. Maybe he’d missed the point of a blow job? Amused at how I was unraveling him, I sank back down on him again. He was so close. I could feel the urgency growing in him. I tugged on his balls and he cursed rather creatively, his voice pushing past his teeth.

When I nipped him again, in the exact same place as before, that took him over the edge completely. He strangled out my name and bucked against my lips. I sucked him into my mouth, pumping him as he came onto my tongue with a hot wet spurt.

The salty flavor of him burst over me in a wave and I swallowed greedily, my tongue shaping him, lapping him up. He pressed in between my lips with soft little pulses of his hips and I rode out the aftershocks of his orgasm, feeling indecently pleased with myself. I drew on him in steady, gulping thrusts, wringing every last drop out of him.

He finally wrenched me off of him, evidently unable to take the gentle swirl of my tongue any longer. We stared at one another, the both of us sweaty, red-faced and messy. His eyes followed my tongue as I licked a droplet of pearly semen from the corner of my lip.

“Mmmm… I love the way you taste,” I said and Zuko’s whole body vibrated with the need to continue where we’d started. I didn’t know where he was getting the energy, but I loved it. He reached for me and I slid my fingers into his hair, yanking him to my lips with a greedy groan. I sat up on my knees, ready to straddle him again.

He kissed me just as deeply before, his tongue teasing mine with a frantic, lusty roll, tasting himself. I imagined what that talented tongue could do between my legs. My body, already aroused and begging for his attention, responded to his instantly. My nipples ached as he pulled me against his chest. Zuko reached down and his hands squeezed my ass. I thrilled to his touch.

_Yes. Touch me. I’m yours._

A knock sounded on the door and for a moment I didn’t know what it was.

“Shit,” Zuko said, wrenching himself away from my mouth and glaring daggers at the door. “What do you want?”

“Fire Lord Zuko? We have an appointment at four to discuss the tax assessments on the crown’s properties on Ember Island…”

I recognized the voice of his taxman as I wiped at my mouth and got smoothly to my feet. My head spun as my pulse slammed hard, adrenaline burning through the lust and restoring my good sense. Good thing it was protocol to knock on the Fire Lord’s door before entering, or we would have been caught  _in flagrante delicto._

And wouldn’t  _that_  be a scandal, to be caught blowing the Fire Lord during office hours. What a dirty little tart I’d be…

“Of course. Wait just a moment please,” Zuko called in a calmer voice than I could have managed, all things considered. He stood and righted his clothing, brushing his hand across his crotch. There was one wet spot there, but it wasn’t that noticeable once he pulled his loose shirt down.

I looked a little more undone, and I smoothed my hands through my tangled hair quickly, wiping at my mouth. I knew that my face paint was smudged, but there was no help for it. My hands shook as Zuko turned back to face me.

There was no way anyone looking at us wouldn’t know what we’d been up to.

Our gazes met and I saw lust in his gaze. A nervous giggle left me and I clamped my hand over my mouth to stifle it.

 _I want you_ , Zuko mouthed at me and it was like he’d set me on fire. I dropped my hand and grinned at him

 _Later_ , I mouthed back and walked toward the door, but he caught me by the waist and slammed a hot, hard kiss to my lips that had me clinging to him. I pulled away first, with a flick of my tongue against his lips. Then I walked away from him, a little sashay in my hips. I was feeling pretty damned amazing and I knew that he was watching me go.

When I opened the door, Zuko’s tax advisor was too busy making his greetings to look at me. I walked past him, hearing Zuko politely greet him, with barely a shake in his voice. I walked away, biting down on my swollen smudged lips, his taste on my tongue.

I was going to fuck that man or die trying.


	2. Temptation!

The next day was torture for me. I wasn’t scheduled to guard Zuko until later that afternoon, but I did see him in the hall on the way to training. Our eyes met for one brief moment, and then he swallowed and looked away. I let him walk away. What else could I do?

I’d spent the night after our encounter pacing my bedroom, wondering if I should go to his suite. Was that too forward? What if he was regretting the whole thing?

Had I crossed the lines of our friendship, of our working relationship? My anxiety climbed to higher and higher heights until I’d finally fallen asleep with an ache between my legs and the taste of blood on my tongue from a bitten lip…and when I woke up…

It was all so much worse.

He hadn’t summoned me to his suite. He hadn’t come to see me. He was probably planning to fire me. Our friendship was ruined. All because I couldn’t keep my stupid mouth to myself.

_Good one, Suki. Giving the Fire Lord a blow job in his office, what a fantastic move. Avatar Kyoshi would be so proud of you for upholding her traditions right now._

That thought gave me pause. I’d read enough about Kyoshi to know that she might very well have approved. She’d had a series of lovers throughout her long lifetime, of both sexes. I often wondered if Aang knew that…

Anyway, back to the point, I was pretty sure my mouth had gotten me into trouble and Zuko was just waiting to let me down. Or maybe he just didn’t want to see me at all. That look in the hallway had been pretty telling.

When my shift came, I relieved one of the other girls and walked into his office. He’d been in meetings all morning and gotten into another argument with the shipbuilders, from what I’d heard at lunch. When I entered the office, he was deep in conversation with his taxman, the same interrupting life-ruiner from the day before. The little man was bent over the contract from the shipbuilders, shaking his balding head.

My stomach fluttered as I stared at Zuko. He hadn’t looked up when I’d entered, so I had a clear shot of the side of his face. His burned and scarred eye followed the taxman’s finger and he was nibbling on his bottom lip. His jaw worked—I could write sonnets about that freaking jawline, like, what gave him the right?—little white streaks of stress showing up in his stubbled skin. His long black hair was shaggy today and I knew he’d been pulling at it in frustration again.

The broad line of his shoulders was tense and as I watched, he twisted his neck a little, as if trying to work out a kink. I clasped my hands behind my back, stopping the impulse to walk over to him and massage the kink out.

Or sit in his lap and demand he kiss me like he had yesterday.

That ache between my legs hadn’t gone away. Damn him.

“I just don’t see how we can manage it. If we don’t honor the contract, it will damage the crown’s reputation in the private sector. But if we pay for these ships, it will take money from the Restoration Movement—money the villages my father’s greed all-but destroyed desperately need. I can’t pay for these ships. And I can’t have a massive armada of warships at my beck and call!”

My brow furrowed and I cocked my head to the side, lost in thought as the taxman let out a breath and said something unhelpful to Zuko. I tuned him out as I chewed on my lower lip. Zuko had to pay for the ships or risk the other independent contractors used by the crown for goods and services losing their trust in the crown, but paying for the ships would take money from his restoration movement, and destroy his reputation to the people of the other Nations…something he really couldn’t afford to do.

“Do they have to build warships?”

Zuko’s attention snapped to me instantly and I realized with a start that he really hadn’t realized I was there. I saw his nostrils flare and his whole body lurched forward on his chair, like he was about to bound up out of it. Instead, he caught himself, glanced at his taxman and then licked his lips. He looked back at me again and I felt heat suffuse my middle.

“Pardon?” the taxman asked, blinking myopically behind a pair of thick spectacles.

“Do the shipbuilders have to build warships for you?” I said again, walking forward, the heat of Zuko’s gaze burning me up. I did my best to ignore him, although it wasn’t easy. They had a copy of the contract spread out before them, and I stood at Zuko’s side of the desk, bending over the thing.

“What do you mean, Suki?” Zuko asked, and I tried my hardest to hear heat in his words, but he was as inscrutable as a brick wall.

“What if you could get them to build regular ships for you? Without the defense capabilities? Merchant-class ships. You pay the same price, but the shipbuilders do less labor. The builds will even take a shorter time. They can’t complain about that.”

“That doesn’t exactly solve the problem. I still have to pay for ships I don’t need, with money I can’t spare,” Zuko said, tapping the contract with his forefinger.

“But you’ll have merchant class ships. Ships  _you_ can sell for a profit. You can’t sell a warship, right?”

“Right, because then it could be used by anyone with a mind for violence against the Fire Nation or any of the other Nations,” he said, eyeing me.

“But a merchant-class ship? You could resell them to people in the Earth Kingdom, the Water Tribes, your own people, and for a price that’s probably only a little below what you paid for it.”

“Actually,” the taxman said, a pleased look on his face.  He was doing sums on a scrap piece of parchment. “The shipbuilders gave your father a discounted price because of the amount of ships he ordered, the time it would take to produce them and because they were terrified of him. Even if you paid the full contracted price for all of the ships, by reselling each ship for just a little below asking price, you’d still make a profit off of each one.”

Zuko sat back in his chair, looking stunned and thoughtful. “Are you certain?”

His taxman smiled at me, then at Zuko, pushing his glasses up his nose. “I’ll have to run the numbers a few times, and you’ll want to go over the contract language with your lawyers, but I think there’s enough wiggle room to do this. Captain Suki’s suggestion is inspired.”

I saw Zuko’s lips quirk as he fought a smile. I couldn’t help but feel pleased. “Could I sell the ships as they’re being finished and delivered? Is there even a viable market for that many ships?”

“I think so. Most merchants have had to make do with the smaller, more inferior shipbuilders who don’t have access to good iron since your father contracted the best shipbuilders in the guild. If their ships go on the market at the price I think we can get for them then you’ll have them sold before they’re even out of production,” I spoke up.

Zuko let out a breath and I saw the tension run out of him. “Good. That’s excellent. Mikai, if you’d go over the numbers for me and have a full report on my desk by tomorrow afternoon? I’ll get the lawyers on it tonight as well.”

“Of course, Fire Lord Zuko,” the taxman said, grabbing his papers and pulling them into his arms. He nodded at me with another pleased grin on his face and then waddled out of the room, the door closing behind him, leaving us alone together.

I could feel his eyes on me as I bent over the contract, studying it with an intensity I only half-felt. I was all too aware of Zuko on my right, sitting back in his chair. He was like magnetic north and I was a compass desperate to spin right toward him. I dug my elbows into the desk, chewing on my abused lower lip.

“I don’t see any mention of the word warships,” I finally said after about five minutes of slightly uncomfortable silence. I could still feel his gaze on me. He hadn’t looked away for a moment while I’d read the contract. “I think it definitely leaves things open for negotiation.”

“Good,” he said in a non-committal way. I glanced back at him, feeling my nerves coming back. What was going on in his head? Why was he staring at me?

“The only bad part is you’re going to have to pay them for the warships they’ve already finished and unless you pay to retrofit them, you won’t be able to sell them,” I said, just to fill the silence.

“Mmm.”

“You’ll have to find the money somewhere.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And that’s…um…uh…” I trailed off as Zuko’s hand slid up the back of my thigh. Even though I was wearing my uniform, I could feel the heat of his hand, the weight of it. He stroked me from knee to buttock and then gently spread his fingers with a squeeze, cupping my ass. I swallowed, an avalanche of emotion tumbling through me, smashing the doubts I’d been suffering.

So he  _wasn’t_ regretting what we’d done!

He squeezed my ass and then stroked back down my leg, just as slowly, igniting a firestorm of sensations along my skin. His hand slid back up, his fingers slipping in between my legs. My uniform might look like a skirt, but they were actually wide-legged pants, and I felt the press of his fingers at my crotch, pushing into the heat of me. The seam of my pants rubbed against my clit and I hitched in a breath, fingers curling against the desk.  The ache in my center awoke with a blaze.

Then his teasing hand slid away and he cupped my ass again.

“Zuko?” I asked over my shoulder and his gaze flicked from my rear end to my face. There were high roses of color in his cheeks and his eyes had that same glassy look from yesterday.

“Keep reading the contract. I trust your eyes,” he said gently, in a voice that was very calm for a man who’d just fingered me through my pants. “I knew you’d find a solution. You’re brilliant.”

“No, I’m not,” I said as he pushed himself forward in his chair, his other hand grasping my hip. With a gentle pressure he moved me in between his knees, trapping me between himself and the desk. I let him, my nerves singing, wondering what the hell was going on. What was he doing? What was he thinking?

“Yes, you are. I’d be lost without you,” he admonished me, pulling my hips back so that I was almost forced to bend over the desk. His foot hit mine, sliding it out a few inches, spreading my legs a little more. “I was pretty lost last night without you.”

“You were?” I asked as he stroked me again, his hands caressing along my inner thighs.

“I was afraid of scaring you away, or I would have come to you,” he said softly. “You didn’t come to me, either.”

There was accusation in his words. Damn. I’d messed up. He’d probably been thinking I was having regrets. I totally should have just shown up in his bed. I’d been torturing myself all night for no damned reason.

“What are you doing?” I asked instead of addressing my mistake, but I had a feeling I knew what he was doing. I could see the look in his eyes. My whole body thrilled with triumph. The long night I’d spend suffering, wondering if I’d made a gigantic mistake melted away, and left me quivering with anticipation in front of him, my elbows on the desk, my ass pretty much in his face.

“I haven’t been able to concentrate all day,” Zuko said in an amused voice. “All I can think about…is _you_ …  And what I’d like to do to you.”

I smiled, though he couldn’t see it.

“And what would you like to do to me?” I asked, twitching my hips a little.

“Punish you for leaving me hard and alone last night,” Zuko said quietly as I grinned back at him. “All I had left was your lip paint all over me… And then you didn’t show up. It felt like you were punishing me.”

So he’d noticed that I’d left my lip paint all over his cock, had he? I was obscenely pleased.

“So punish me then,” I said, wondering what he’d do.

A sharp blow landed on my right buttock, surprising a gasp out of me, even though it hadn’t hurt. I just…hadn’t expected it. Or the way it made my skin tingle.

“Did that hurt?” he asked gently as the shock of it wore off.

“No,” I said and another blow fell, a little harder than before. My hips twitched with the blow and I hung my head, surprised at the way the quick pain went straight through me and lingered between my legs. My clit was throbbing and I could feel the first start of arousal.

I liked being spanked. Who knew?

And who knew that Zuko liked it either? I would never have guessed that…and somehow the thought just turned me on even more. I twitched my hips back and let a moan leave me. I waited for another blow, but it didn’t come.

“Did you like that?” he asked as his hand gently gliding over my offended cheek.

“Yes,” I breathed, glancing back over my shoulder at him. He met my gaze again and the look on his face made my knees weak. Oh, he was  _definitely_  not regretting that blow job.

“Good,” he said, and spanked me again, on the other cheek this time. I was prepared that time, but the sensation had a moan of longing leaving me. I hung my head as another one fell and then another and another and another, in rapid succession.

I waited for more, anticipating it, needing it, even though my ass was stinging. When his face pressed into my buttocks, his hands spreading on my hips, I resisted the urge to put my hands over his and dug my nails into the desk instead.

When his hand slipped around my waist and pushed up beneath the leather jerkin of my armor and caught the ties of my pants, I nearly went out of my skin. The ties came undone with a jerk of skillful fingers and my pants slid loosely down my hips just a little. I was wearing way too many layers though.

I wanted to be naked against him, his skin on my skin. I had a feeling he knew it to, because his fingers lingered on my lower belly, gently caressing me. Teasing me.

“What about the door?” I asked, glancing toward the door in question.

“I have no other appointments today. If anyone needs me they’ll knock,” he said as his fingers stroked my stomach.

I knew for a fact that he had scheduled two appointments yesterday for this afternoon. Well, what do you know? He’d cleared his schedule for me…which meant he’d definitely been thinking about me. And planning this. I tried not to preen and failed.

“Zuko…”

“Read the contract for me, Suki. Read it out loud. Slowly…” he said and as his fingers pushed inside of my pants, sliding beneath my panties and through the little mound of my pubic hair. His fingertips skimmed my clit and I trembled against the desk, my breasts pressing into the hard surface until my nipples were aching.

“Uhh…”

“Read the contract,” he insisted and I swallowed, wetting my lips as I lifted myself back up. The contract was between my forearms in all of its tiny-printed, legalese glory. His fingers slowly worked a circle against me, pressing my clit down flat. My knees shook. “Read it.”

I started reading the contract, stumbling over words as he touched me, my hips pushing back into his hand. I didn’t understand half of what I was reading. All of my attention was on Zuko and the fucking amazing things he was doing to my pussy.

When he pulled his fingers out of my pants, my recitation stuttered to a halt in mid-sentence. I glanced back at him, making a little noise of disappointment.

His hand came down on my ass with a sharp smack and his fevered gaze hit mine. “Keep reading.”

I turned back to the contract, completely lost on where I’d stopped. It didn’t matter. I picked it back up in a random place, my tongue thick as Zuko pulled my pants and underwear down my hips. The cool air of the room hit the pink skin of my buttocks, sending little shivers through me.

Zuko’s mouth alighted on my ass and he kissed me gently, as if apologizing for hurting me. His lips lingered on my skin, his tongue trailing along the tight, heated flesh. I followed his progress breathlessly, my tongue stumbling across long words that made no sense.

His fingers pushed between my legs from behind, opening me to him. I was so wet it was ridiculous. He groaned in his throat, the tips of two of his fingers penetrating me with a shallow press. I wanted more.

I gasped, squirming in place when his teeth sank into my left cheek. It didn’t hurt. It felt fucking _awesome._  He licked the bite mark when he released my flesh, and kissed across my red skin as his fingers sank into me further.

“You’re not reading.”

And his palm landed on my left cheek with a sting that buckled my knees. My forehead went down on the desk and I breathed out against the contract, my lipstick smudging on it. Damn….

I lifted up and tried to make sense of the words swimming in front of me.

“The…the party of the second…” I started as I heard Zuko’s chair scrape backward. He went to his knees behind me, his fingers pushing into me to the knuckles. I squirmed in little shifting thrusts backward against him, wondering where the hell this was coming from. Had he truly been planning _this_ , this  _torture_  of me? Had he known that I would love it this much…when I hadn’t even been aware? Did he have any idea what he was doing to me, how turned on I was?

I had no idea. I didn’t even care. I just didn’t want him to stop.

When his fingers pulled out of me, I made another sound, but it turned into a moan of pleasure when he grasped my hips and buried his face between my legs from behind. He groaned as his tongue snaked out, flicking my clit. I tilted my hips, lifting up on tiptoe so that he could touch me fully. My stupid pants and panties were keeping my legs from spreading any further though. It probably looked so undignified.

I didn’t care in the least, and he didn’t seem to mind, his hands spreading my ass open. His tongue slipped and slid over me, firing off little jagged forks of pleasure as my clit stood at attention and demanded satisfaction.

“ _Yes…”_ I breathed, reaching back, my fingers sinking into his hair. My toes clenched in my boots. I tried to push my hips back into his face, but his hands held me in place. I shifted forward and back against the desk, the edge of it digging into my hipbones. Zuko made another groan, and his tongue slid up and into me.

My hand dropped from his hair and I grasped the desk, pushing my hips back into him as much as I could. His tongue flicking in and out of me as one of his hands reached around and rubbed my clit again. It was too much. And not  _nearly_  enough. I whimpered, putting my head down on the contract again.

I wasn’t reading. I didn’t care. I hoped he punished me for it.

He finally pulled back, breathing raggedly. His fingers slid inside of me again and my pussy clenched around them, greedy, ready for him to fill me. I was wet, wetter than I could remember being for a very long time. My inner thighs felt slippery.

Zuko’s fingers massaged in and out of me, curling, pressing forward into the strong muscle that gripped around him. I whimpered against the desk, my hips bouncing up and down on his fingers.

“Do you like that, Suki?”

“Yes,” I managed, my mouth muffled against the contract.

“What was that?”

“ _YES_! Don’t fucking stop.”

Zuko breathed out shakily and kissed the reddened skin on my ass, then pulled his fingers out of me and stood. I pushed up from the desk, a whine of protest leaving me.  He  _couldn’t_ stop there! I’d kill him.

Zuko stepped close, pressing himself against me. I could feel how hard he was through his pants, the bulge of his erection pressing into my stinging buttocks with a heavy weight. His arm wrapped around my waist, tugging me up against him.

“Wanted this for so long,” he said and his teeth scored my earlobe with a nip, setting off a cavalcade of sensations. I rolled my hips back into his crotch. He wasn’t the only one who had been waiting. If he only knew how many times I’d touched myself while thinking about him….

I grasped his hand and practically shoved it between my legs. He didn’t waste any time, rubbing my clit with a rough grind that had me squirming against the hard wall of his body. I felt so sweaty inside of my armor, so ready to feel him inside of me.

But he was still teasing me, and I knew it.

When he pulled his hand out from between my quivering legs again, I welcomed what he would do next. He grasped my pants and tugged them even further down my hips. Then he turned me around and dropped back to his knees.

My hands sank into his hair as he shoved my legs open as far as my stupid pants would allow and then pushed his mouth against me. At the same moment, his fingers slipped inside of me. I reveled in the feeling, in what he was doing to me. The edge of the desk dug into my stinging buttocks, but I didn’t care. It just served to turn me on even more.

Zuko’s tongue circled my clit, pleasure teasing through my lower body. I lifted the padded jerkin of my armor, once again cursing it and every other stitch of clothing I was wearing.

My hips tilted toward the heat of his mouth and I gasped when his fingers thrust into me, hard and fast, pressing into a responsive spot inside of me. I shuddered, hands gripping his hair and the desk, my head tipping back.

Zuko’s head moved back and forth and the bottom of his lip grazed my clit. I paid the price in a burst of pleasure the shivered outward from my hot pussy and into every other inch of my body.

“Oh  _fuck_ …”

His fingers moved within me, slipping and sliding in and out until I was nearly insensible with the feeling. I wanted to come,  _needed_  to come. Just the sight of Zuko eating my pussy enough to send me over the edge, and the fact that he was clearly enjoying it…

Well, it was a wonder I hadn’t combusted on the spot.

He suckled my clit into his mouth and rolled it between his lips. The pressure and the friction sent pleasure zinging through me and I cried out, bucking against his mouth and against the desk.

“Oh fuck, I’m coming,” I managed, mouth open, my whole body clenching. He pulled back to watch me, his fingers jerking into me, bringing me over that edge so hard and so fast that I just about screamed. My pussy clenched around his fingers with a strong spasm and it felt like his whole damned hand pressed into me, working me through my orgasm with a few sharp, short jerks. I lifted up on my toes, crying out, trying desperately to get away from the pleasure, and yet not wanting it to stop.

When his mouth connected with my clit again, I came for the second time, with an even harder spasm. I was vaguely aware of crying his name, and of him jumping to his feet, his mouth suddenly on mine, _shhing_ me with a desperate, wet kiss.

His fingers were still fucking me, though he was being gentler than before, letting me come down from the double orgasm in little increments. He kissed me with shallow precision, his tongue rolling wetly against mine. My arms were around him, practically tearing at his clothing.

My whole body felt like it was on fire, lit up from within. My ass was still stinging and my thighs were wet. My clit throbbed and basically every part of me was alive, alive,  _alive_.

All because of Zuko.

Zuko’s fingers glided in and out of me as I caught my breath, still kissing him, not willing to let go. My hand brushed the bulge of his cock and he groaned, his thumb pushing up between the lips of my pussy and against the overstimulated nub of my clitoris.

“No, no,  _no…_ ” I whimpered against his mouth as he rubbed me. It was too much. I squirmed away, but he had me against the desk and there was no escape. His thumb tapped me again and again and again and I practically collapsed, gripping the desk and shifting my hips upward. It hurt, but it felt so fucking _good_ …and he  _knew it_.

“Are you going to come for me again?” he asked raggedly against my neck, tap-tap-tapping that fucking thumb of his right against my goddamned clit. I was going to murder him or marry him. I wasn’t sure which.

“ _Yes,_  damn you!” I snarled at him, torn between slapping him away from me or a third orgasm. Zuko’s wet lips were open as he watched me squirm; I’d never seen him more aroused. His fingers were still inside of me, but he’d stopped moving them  _and_  that fucking thumb of his. I shifted my hips up and down, grinding on his hand, trying to ease the insistent ache. I couldn’t believe I was still ready to come. My whole body needed more, needed to him to fuck me.

Enough with this teasing. I was through.

His thumb brushed me again, experimentally, and my body and mind went haywire.

“Oh spirits, just fucking fuck me, Zuko,” I begged as my knees stopping functioning. I grasped the laces of his pants and untied them with a jerking rip. He seemed to have broken too, and helped me, shoving his pants down his hips. His cock pushed into my stomach, free of its restraint. He was flushed red and straining, a bead of pre-cum dribbling down the blunt head.

I didn’t waste any time, shoving him back and turning around. Zuko seemed as in a hurry as I did. I knew he wouldn’t last long. And neither would I.

I didn’t care.

Zuko gripped my hips and with one rough thrust forward, he was inside of me.

“Yes!” I’m not sure which one of us said it. It might have been both of us. Zuko filled me, his cock heavy and thick, thicker than his fingers by far. My mouth opened as I pressed back into him. He fucked me in brutal, short strokes. This was no time to be making love.

It should have been awkward, his pants falling to his knees, mine shoved around my hips, my heavy leather armor in the way of everything.

It wasn’t though. It was just _…incredible_.

And over very quickly. I came after only a few strokes, clenching around him with a greedy squeeze. I was insensible, a creature made of pleasure. Zuko gathered me up against him, his hips snapping sharply against my stinging red buttocks as I cried out, lost in the feel of my world just absolutely shattering.

“Suki…” he groaned against my ear as he gave one last stroke and then pulled out of me with a deep, guttural groan. He reached down between my legs, gathered my panties in his fist and then jerked himself off onto the crotch. He came with a deep shutter, his hips still pushing against mine. I reached behind me and grasped his hip, still coming down myself.

He let go of my wet panties, little droplets of cum all over the insides of my thighs. His cock slid against my wet center, grazing my clit. I whimpered and he stilled, still heavy and full against me.

We breathed together, the both of sweaty, mostly clothed, our bodies spent.

I was ruminating over the fact that I’d just fucked one of my oldest friends, when Zuko said softly, “Did I hurt you?”

My brow wrinkled with confusion. “No. Why?”

“I spanked you.”

A laughed escaped me. “I liked that. You can do everything you just did to me any time you want. You could do a lot more than that to me…”

I meant it too. I’d try anything he wanted me to and I would feel no shame about it.

Zuko’s lips traced my neck. “Are you sure?”

“I just had three blistering orgasms in a row, I’m so wet I’m practically going to float out of this room and my knees quit working about ten minutes ago,” I said, and felt him smile with pride against my neck. “I’m pretty damned sure.”

“So what is this?” he asked as his hands slid soothingly across my offended bottom.

“I don’t know,” I said truthfully. “Why don’t we find out?”

“I’d like that,” he said as I turned my head. He kissed me, slowly, deeply, enough to let me know that if I wanted, he would get back on his knees and eat me out again. I was tempted, but I didn’t think my body could handle it at the moment. At some point I turned in his arms and he kissed me a little harder, his lips moving against mine with skill. His hands caressed my sore cheeks. I’d always had a feeling that he was an ass man, and I think my instincts were right on target

Finally, we both pulled back, breathing raggedly. Zuko’s thumb brushed my bottom lip and I tasted myself. My tongue darted out and I saw his eyes flash with arousal. I wondered vaguely how long he’d been attracted to me. I doubted it was as long as _I’d_  been attracted to  _him._

“Come to my room tonight,” Zuko said, sliding his hand into my hair. To anyone else that might sound like an order from the Fire Lord, but I knew the look in his eyes. It was a question. He wanted me to come, but he wasn’t going to push me…just like he hadn’t wanted to push it last night. “We’ll have dinner.”

“I’d love to,” I said and kissed him again. When I pulled back I took a sniff of the air and wrinkled my nose. “It smells like sex in here.”

“Yeah,” he agreed with a simmering grin that did all kinds of things to me.

“We’d both better go get cleaned up,” I said as he stepped reluctantly away from me, pulling his pants up and adjusting himself. He looked shyly away from me, which I thought was kind of adorable, all things considered. I pulled my panties up, the crotch wet against my swollen flesh. I thrilled at the memory of him jacking himself off with my panties.

I bit my lip and pulled my pants up. My legs were like rubber as I stepped up to him. He tried to kiss me, but I moved my face away, biting down on his chin with a scrape that had him shaking.

“See you at eight.”

“I’ll be waiting. You’d better come tonight.”

I smirked at him as I walked out the door. “Yes, you’d better make sure that I  _do_.”

I didn’t wait for his reply.


	3. Seduction!

I didn’t know what to expect when I knocked on Zuko’s door that evening. Maybe I thought he’d attack me at the door, strip me naked and fuck me on the floor.

Or maybe I was just _hoping_  that would happen.

However, when he answered the door, he was fully dressed, though not wearing his official Fire Lord robes. His clothing was sedate but sexy: a sleeveless silk vest in deep red, trimmed with gold and sashed at his waist. The vest was just loose enough to show off his muscular chest and I found myself unable to look away.  He was wearing fitted pants of the same color as his vest and his boots were soft black leather, supple and well-worn. His hair was down and gone was the gold flame-shaped crown he usually wore. A single braid trailed down his temple and rest on his shoulder.  I ached to sink my fingers into his hair and kiss his scar…something I’d always wanted to do.

“Suki,” he breathed as he stared at me. I felt a rushing sensation in my middle as I stood in the doorway, nibbling on my lower lip. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of him, remembering all too well the sight and feel of his face against my pussy. My legs were still more than a bit wobbly. “You came.”

“Of course I did,” I said, reaching up to tug a stray lock of hair out of my face. His gaze flicked across my face and then down my body in an obvious expression of appreciation. Good. I wanted him to look. I’d dressed just for him, just like I knew he’d dressed for me.

I was wearing a long, rather diaphanous, backless dress of pale gold, embroidered with tiny trailing ivy leaves a pale green color. The waist was fitted, with a halter collar that tied around my neck. My arms were bare, save a gold bracelet wrapped around my left biceps.  The whole dress floated around me in a sensual, silken cloud, my hair a jumble of curls, pinned back by a comb on one side. My face was free of my usual Kyoshi makeup, but I’d painted my lips a sinful dark red, and lined my eyes with kohl and gold.

On the whole, I felt incredibly feminine and fragile standing there before him. Both sensations weren’t entirely unknown to me, but they weren’t the usual thing. I was a Kyoshi Warrior; fragile I was not. Feminine? Sometimes it was hard to feel feminine when you were wrapped up in thick layers of armor and wearing heavy boots, with the ability to punch a man’s teeth down his throat.  Most of the time I didn’t think about it much, in fact I loved my uniform, my job, my way of life, but I wanted to feel sexy tonight.

I wanted to look sexy for  _him_. If only to see the look on his face.

He didn’t disappoint me. Once his roving eyes flicked back to my face, I could see the heat suffusing his cheeks. A little smile took hold of his lips as our gazes met.

“You look…” he trailed off, his vision glazing over a bit as I grinned at him, feeling a little warm myself.

“Good enough to eat?” I suggested as I smoothed my hands down my hips. He caught my double entendre and I saw the slightly sharp grin that flitted over his expression.

“I thought I already did. You look beautiful,” he said, reaching and taking my hand. He kissed the back of my fingers gallantly and then pulled me into his suite. He pushed the door shut behind me. I’d been in his suite thousands of times; to hang out, discuss tactics, eat dinner, greet friends, but tonight felt completely different.

Probably because we’d had sex in his office that afternoon. Things like that tend to change a friendship…and I for one was all too pleased at the twist things had taken. I’d wanted him for so long. It just didn’t seem real, but of course my sore ass was a testament to the truth of what we’d done. Truth be told, I hadn’t known that Zuko had it in him. He’d surprised me, and I’d loved every second of it. I’d definitely unleashed something in him.  

Or maybe we’d unleashed something in each other.

I smirked to myself as I looked around his suite. There were candles everywhere, blazing on every surface. It was like walking into a fireplace. The warm light caught the gilt trimming the expensive décor, bouncing around like golden fairies. I glanced at my dress, suddenly aware of how the light made me glow as well.

I’d definitely chosen the right dress, and I could tell by the way Zuko’s hand touched my bare back with a slow caress, that he thought so too. In this light, the flickering shadows were kind to his scarred eye, turning the bubbled, uneven skin into a soft blush around his glowing amber eyes.

Oh, those eyes. How often had I stared into them, making up names for their exact color? Amber. Topaz. Warm citrine. Golden haze… There just was no proper description. Zuko’s eyes simply defied classification and over the years I’d found myself staring into them more than was strictly necessary. 

“You look handsome, too,” I said, biting down on my red lips again. “You did all of this for me?”

I gestured broadly to the room at large as Zuko’s fingers caressed lightly down my back. Little shivers crept over me, despite the warmth of the room and I shivered in place. Damn him. One touch and I was already coming out of my skin.

Zuko actually blushed, which I thought was adorable, considering the fact that he’d fucked me on his desk that afternoon and hadn’t seemed embarrassed in the slightest. Not that I was complaining, but it was too adorable. He was too adorable.

Ugh, listen to me. I was definitely crushing hard.

“I wanted tonight to be special. To make up for…everything,” he said, pushing his hair back from his face.

“To make up for what?” I asked, brow furrowing.

“For…attacking you like that,” Zuko mumbled. I could tell what he’d done had shocked him. “I didn’t mean to do that. I just…”

“You don’t have to apologize,” I said, stepping close to him. I put my hands on his chest, unable to keep my hands off of him one moment more.  “I loved everything you did.”

“Even…uh…?”

“Spanking me?” I said as I ran my fingertip across the center of his chest. I looked up at him through my eyelashes. “I told you I didn’t mind. And I thought you could tell how much I enjoyed it…how wet that made me…”

“ _Spirits_ , Suki,” Zuko choked out. “Don’t say things like that or we’ll never make it to the dinner table…”

I slid my arms around his neck, my breasts pushing against his chest. His hands spread on my lower back, his thumbs pressing into my skin as I stood up on tiptoe, my lips hovering over his. “I’m not very hungry anyway.”

He groaned and angled his head, kissing me with a slow intensity that fired off every hormone I possessed. His skillful fingers pressed into my hips, pulling my pelvis against his as we swayed in place. His lip tucked against mine, tugging as I sank my fingers into his hair and angled my face against his. He smelled amazing. Like warm spices and jasmine tea. His skin was hot against mine as his strong arms tightened on me.

One of his hands spread up my bare back as he bent forward a little, leaning into me and deepening the kiss. I groaned as our bodies seemed to melt into one another’s. I could feel the first swell of his cock through his pants, pressing into my lower belly. I thrilled to feel it, remember all too well how he’d felt inside of me.

My tongue flirted with his bottom lip, sliding along the velvety skin with a teasing caress. Zuko groaned and darted his tongue into my open mouth with a sensual little roll. The feel of his tongue against mine set off a whole new set of sensations and I shook in his arms, tightening my own around his neck and lifting myself up against him.

My breasts pushed flat against his chest, nipples digging through the thin fabric of my scandalous dress. My whole body was on fire. I couldn’t stop thinking about how he’d spanked me right there at his desk and even if I hadn’t been thinking about it, my sore buttocks would have reminded me when he spread his hand on my ass and sunk his fingers in possessively.

I gasped as the bruised and abused flesh twinged beneath his grasp, wriggling forward against him as I broke our deep, drugging kiss.

“Did I leave a bruise?” he asked, nuzzling my nose as his grip on my ass slackened a little. He rubbed at my cheek through the dress in apology.

“I could barely sit all afternoon,” I said as I nipped his lipstick-smeared bottom lip. I’d left my mark on him too. He didn’t seem to care or mind as he pulled back a little, letting me tug on his bottom lip. I released him with a little grin and then slid my hand back around, covering his hand on my ass. I squeezed his hand and he in turn squeezed my ass again. “I was sore all over. You definitely made an impression, Fire Lord Zuko.”

Zuko’s eyes flamed with lust as his gaze flitted over my face again. Then he leaned in and kissed me again. I lost myself in it, in him, yet again. I couldn’t do anything but cling to him. All I wanted was to push him down on the floor and take him on the spot.

Instead I just kissed him, letting desire build inside of me, filling every thought, turning every nerve-ending into a thing of torment. Every touch of his hand along my bare skin was enough to ignite me. I couldn’t remember ever feeling like this, like I might explode and all he was doing was kissing me.

Kissing the fuck out of me, mind you, but it was still just kissing.

Except, Zuko’s kiss was something more. It meant more. It felt different. It was like fiery whiskey when you were expecting water; overwhelming and with an edge that intoxicated. I could very well become addicted to his kisses; already the compulsion, the need, was filling me, turning me into a junkie.

From here on out, any moment I spent not kissing him would be a moment wasted and I knew it.

Zuko’s hand reached up, flirting with the ties on my dress. A shiver coursed my spine.

 _Yes, take it off_ , I mentally encouraged him, thrilling at the prospect of his mouth on my breasts.  Just then, a persistent knock resounded on the door, causing Zuko’s mouth to disengage from mine with a shaking exhale. He was practically vibrating in my arms, the tell-tale dig of his increasingly impressive erection pressing into my hip.

He glared at the door, and then kissed me again as the knock resounded. I turned my head to the side and he attached to my neck, nuzzling me, sending shivers down my sides. “Zuko, the door.”

“Fuck the door,” he mumbled, his hand clenching my ass again.

“I think it’s the food,” I said, grasping his face. He looked dazed with desire.

Zuko’s grin was simmering and salacious, causing me to remember that afternoon in sharp detail. “I ate this afternoon. I’d like to eat it again.”

I swatted his shoulder as the knock on the door persisted. “ _Zuko._ ”

He kissed me again, quickly, though with no less heat, and then turned to the door with a growl. “WHAT IS IT?”

“Your dinner, sire,” a sedately calm voice said on the other side of the door. I recognized it as belonging to Zuko’s personal valet, whose name I’d always managed to forget minutes after hearing it. Zuko glanced at me, his tongue sliding along his teeth as his gaze slid down to my lips. I knew he wanted to keep kissing me—or maybe do something more, but there was no hope for it now. I tried to pull out of his arms, but, to my surprise, he held on tightly.

“Enter,” Zuko said, his gaze still on mine. I was breathing rather harder than normal, my heart racing as Zuko’s body turned into mine for one long moment. As the door opened and admitted his valet, pushing a laden dinner cart, Zuko leaned into my ear and whispered, “I’m going to fuck you after dinner.”

He pulled back, letting go of me in the process, and turned to his valet, speaking in normal tones, as if he hadn’t just whispered _that_  into my ear. I was left standing in place, my knees knocking, heart bounding and a very insistent throb of arousal between my legs.

Damn him.

Zuko’s valet glanced around the suite, noted the candles, the lipstick smeared across Zuko’s mouth and then flicked to me. His bushy eyebrows went up as his gaze took in my dress and the general disheveled state of my appearance. Even if he hadn’t seen us locked in an embrace, there was no doubt what we had been up to, or were about to be up to.

I blushed, despite myself. It wasn’t like I was embarrassed, but it definitely complicated things. I was Zuko’s bodyguard, practically a servant, though not really part of the household.  I had a feeling the valet thought I was rising a bit above my station. Old friends though we might be, there was no doubt that Zuko was definitely in a different league, socially, than I was.

Well. This was sure to be a scandal once it got around the palace that we were…doing whatever it was that we were doing. Zuko didn’t seem to grasp this though, as he directed the man toward a table near the window, which overlooked the palace grounds.

“Is there anything else you desire, Fire Lord Zuko?” his valet asked when he was finished setting the table, still eyeing me with an interested gleam in his gaze.

“No. I have everything I need, thank you, Wu-Ten,” Zuko said, gesturing toward the door.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t like me to service you at table, sire?” His gaze flicked over me again and I shifted in place, feeling naked all of a sudden. I decided I didn’t like his valet and his knowing eyes. “Or are you already being serviced admirably?”

“Thank you, Wu-Ten,” Zuko said coldly. “That will be all. If I need anything I’ll ring.”

“Of course, sire,” Wu-Ten said, and bowed to him, then turned to me with another bow. “ _Captain._ ”

His voice was pointed like a barb and I fought a glare, nodding at him instead. I suddenly felt ridiculous, standing there in my dress. I could just feel the judgment rolling off of the man. And yet, despite that, Wu-Ten didn’t seem shocked to find us together, just disapproving.

That could mean any number of things; some of them things I didn’t want to dwell on. Instead, I watched the door close behind the valet, nibbling on my bottom lip. Zuko turned back to me and smiled slightly.

“After you,” he said, and put his hand on my back again. I tried not to feel that same ripple of pleasure at the thrill of his touch, but I lost that fight instantly. Zuko led me to the table and I settled down on the sitting pad, smoothing my skirt around me. Zuko sat down next to me.

This was familiar at least. How often had we sat across from one another at this little table, laughing and talking into the night? Except that had been when we were just friends and now we were—what? Lovers?

I didn’t even know.

The food was delicious, as usual. I could feel Zuko’s gaze on me as I took a spoonful of soup. I looked up and saw the faintest of smiles on his face, which was an expression I wasn’t exactly used to, especially not lately.

“What?” I asked, flushing again.

“I don’t think my valet approved.”

“Your valet is going to gossip,” I said smartly and gestured to the candles. “Not very discreet.”

To my confusion, Zuko shrugged. “I don’t care. Let them talk.”

“You want the whole palace to know you’re sleeping with your bodyguard?”

“To be honest, I’d like to keep it between the two of us, but I happen to know how things work in the palace and it’ll get out eventually that you and I are…”

“More than friends?”

“I hope so,” Zuko said, licking his lips. “If you want to be.”

“I think you know the answer to that. You really don’t care that everyone’ll find out?”

“Are you kidding? I’m feeling the overwhelming urge to brag about it. Loudly. To anyone who will listen.”

I laughed at the sheepish look on his face, tipping my head back. When I looked back at him, he was watching me with soft eyes. I loved that look. I’d caught him looking at me like that more than once.

“Is this weird?” he asked.

I shrugged. “A little. This is…”

“Happening fast,” he finished for me. I nodded.

“Yeah.”

Zuko took a bite of his meat and chewed slowly, his gaze never leaving mine. “Do you want me to slow down?”

“I didn’t say that,” I said, taking a sip of the wine. It was heady and sweet. “You just…surprise me.”

“I do?”

“Oh yeah,” I nodded with a grin. “In a good way. This afternoon…”

Zuko’s brow arched and I saw his eyes flash. Maybe he was remembering that afternoon. I certainly was. I couldn’t seem to get it out of my head. “This afternoon I was…not myself. I seem to have… _lost control._  I’ve been under a lot of stress lately.”

“Don’t I know it,” I said with a grin.

His lips quirked. “It’s not an excuse,  but it all seemed to pile in on me and then there you were…flirting with me all of the damned time. For the past few months every time you’re near me all I can think about is ripping your clothing off.”

“Funny, I think the same thing about you.”

Zuko glanced at his plate, looking embarrassed again. He was so adorable when he did that. “You’ve been driving me crazy, Suki.”

“Good. The feeling’s mutual,” I said, reaching over and putting my hand on his thigh. I saw his eyes flash at the contact. “I couldn’t figure out if you were serious when you were flirting with me, or I would have done something about it a long time ago.”

“Would you have?”

“I’ve wanted you for a long time, Zuko.”

“And I’ve probably wanted you even longer,” he said, blushing a little. If he wasn’t careful he was going to make me crawl into his lap and rub myself against him like a cat. As it was, I squeezed his thigh a little more and inched my hand higher. “Longer than I should admit to, all things considered.”

That was intriguing. Had he wanted me when I was dating Sokka? Well, well… Zuko definitely was full of surprises. Then again, I’d still been dating Sokka when my crush on Zuko had developed, so I couldn’t exactly play the innocent there. It had started as a harmless crush though, nothing more serious than a mild attraction that I could ignore. But over the past year, ever since I’d become single, things had become… _intense._

I wasn’t convinced it was a simple crush anymore, and it was a bit more than lust. I didn’t know how to label it. I was just glad we’d finally done something about it; there was only so much sexual tension one woman could take before she went insane.

“Suki…”

“Hmm?”

“Your hand,” he said, putting his hand over mine. I was perilously close to his crotch. I grinned widely.

“Problem?”

“Not at all,” he said and deliberately moved my hand to his crotch. I bit down on my lower lip as Zuko smirked at me and then glanced at the food before us. We hadn’t eaten much.  I leaned toward him, squeezing slightly.

“Dinner’s over.”

“Good,” Zuko said and leaned toward me hungrily. I stopped him with a finger to his lips.

“You’d better have your valet clear the table first. I don’t want anyone to interrupt us. Then,” I said, leaning toward him and lowering my finger. My mouth hovered over his lips, but I didn’t kiss him. “Then you can fuck me.”

“ _Spirits,_ ” Zuko breathed out as I leaned back to admire my handiwork. He was so easy. He was ready to jump me.

Well. The feeling was absolutely mutual. I leaned back as Zuko gave me another longing look and then sprang up and pulled the service bell rope. Not thirty seconds later his valet came to take the leftovers away. As Wu-Ten trundled out of the room (but not before eyeing me up and down knowingly) I took up my glass of wine and wandered over to the window, staring out at the palace grounds as I sipped the sweet liquid. Zuko came up behind me, his hands on my shoulders, his breath in my hair.

“Did you enjoy dinner?” he asked as his fingertip slid down my spine. I shivered. Damn that man and the way he affected me with only a touch.

“Delicious, but I think I’m ready for dessert.”

He reached around and took the glass of wine from my hand, putting it down at the table. He turned back to me and put his arms around my waist. I sank back into him, tilting my head back to look him in the eye. His hands ran along my hips, flattening on my stomach and sliding upward with a lusty weight.

His breath caressed my neck as I pushed my bruised ass back into his crotch. He inhaled sharply and bent his head to my neck, landing little kissing along my pulse point.

“Suki, I think we need to talk,” he said between kisses, dragging his teeth along my neck. My eyes practically rolled up in my head at that.

“About what?” I asked, nibbling my lower lip.

“This dress,” he said, his fingers digging into my hips again.

“You don’t like it?”

“I love it…but I’d love it better on the floor.”

I laughed and rocked my hips back against him again. “Then take it off of me.”

His mouth connected to the join of my shoulder with a not-so-gentle bite. The feeling sent electric crackles of pleasure chasing through my skin. I cried out, grasping his hands as I writhed against the wet warmth of his mouth. His tongue chased the indentation his teeth had made and I thrilled to the touch of it.

His hands worked up my torso, smoothing down the dress until he cupped the undersides of my breasts. The thin material was like tissue paper against the heat of his hand. My nipples throbbed in time to my racing heart.

“ _Mmmm…_ ”

He palmed my breasts, squeezing them, tugging me back against his body as his mouth dragged along my neck. Shivers ran up and down my body as I reached back and wound one arm around his neck, arching mine into his mouth.

One of his hands slipped into my bodice and spread like fire across my breast with a hard squeeze. I gasped and then laughed, turning my head and nipping his chin. He caught my mouth with his own, kissing me with a shallow plunge of his tongue.

Our groping session before Wu-Ten had arrived seemed to be picking up where it had left off. And Zuko was definitely making good on his promise of after dinner activities. My whole body vibrated with need as his hands molded my breasts, his thumbs rubbing across my nipples, sending jolts of white-hot need down my body and straight between my legs.

I drew back from his lips, a breath leaving me as he pinched my nipple hard enough to have me biting my lip, but not hard enough to really hurt. Zuko caught my gaze as I tipped my head to the side. He looked aroused and intent as a little smile took hold of his mouth.

“Zuko…” The hand not in my bodice reached up and took hold of one of the ties of the dress. He pulled it with a little jerk and the whole knot came undone like he was unwrapping a present. The bodice fell down my breasts, and then, helped by his hand, slithered down to my waist. His head lowered and he kissed my bare shoulder, his tongue tracing an old scar. “Mmmm…I always thought you were so shy…”

He lifted his mouth. “What are you talking about? I  _am_  shy.”

“Really?” I scoffed as his hand pushed the dress down my hips. It fell to the floor at my feet with a whisper of silk. I wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing beneath it. The candlelight was kind to me, setting my skin aglow. Or maybe it just the man at my back, touching me in ways that made my whole body burn. “This is you being shy?”

I felt Zuko’s smile against my neck as his fingertips gently rubbed my lower belly. “It’s different with you. You make me… Different. You make me… _want_ …”

“Want what?”

Zuko’s teeth scored my earlobe. “You. Just you.”

I stepped out of my dress and turned around in his arms. I met his gaze, staring at him for one long moment before I surged into him. Our mouths met with a blistering rush. His arms wrapped around my waist and he tugged me against him in all of my naked glory.

His hands were reverent on my soft skin, fingertips slowly tickling me as he angled kiss after kiss against my hungry mouth. He tasted of wine and anticipation. Heat suffused me as I rubbed against him. He was still dressed and there I was, naked. Didn’t seem fair.

I slid my hands down and untied the sash at his waist, letting it drop to the floor on top of my dress. Then I slid the buttons of his vest open, and shoved the garment off of his shoulders. Zuko shrugged out of it as I pulled back with a grin, meeting his hot gaze for a split second. He kissed me again, tugging me forward as he clasped my ass in his strong, hot hands and lifting me against his chest.

I gasped as my feet left the ground, turning my face to the side. He immediately slid his mouth down my neck, scoring me with his teeth. Little shivers careened down my body as he walked us over to a plush couch upholstered in wine-colored velvet.

Zuko sank down to one knee on the couch, lowering the both of us onto the soft cushions lengthwise. I gloried in the feel of the velvet as Zuko parted my knees his hands and sank down in between my thighs. He rained kisses along my neck and shoulders, moving from side to side, his hands caressing my hips, my ribs, my breasts. I bucked beneath him, one hand in his hair and the other pushing between our bodies.

He groaned when my hand pressed against the front of his pants and I felt his cock twitch against my palm. I stroked him through the soft material of his pants, enjoying the way his hips pushed into my touch.

He trailed his mouth down my collarbone and the bottom of his lip dragging wetly across the slopes of my breasts. He pushed them together gently and then closed his mouth over my left nipple. I gasped and writhed toward the heat of his mouth.

Zuko glanced up at me as my mouth opened and I watched him suckle at my breast, his other hand kneading me. His tongue rolled across the hardening skin as he pulled at it hard enough to cause a tremor to run through me. He let me go with a wet pop and then promptly nipped the red, pebbled skin.

“Zuko…”

He groaned, closing his eyes and drawing my breast back into his mouth. He pulled it deeper this time and I was left aching, my whole body shaking beneath his on the couch. I somehow managed to get my hands inside of his pants as he released me and moved to my other breast.

His cock was hard and eager in my fingers as I got them around him. I stroked him, root to tip as he pulled his mouth off of my breasts and let out a gusty, shaking breath. He kissed my neck again, his weight lowering down on me, his hips grinding in little circles against my hand.

“That feels so good,” he mumbled against my ear as I licked his shoulder and then bit down a little bit. He groaned hard, reaching down and clasping the underside of my knee. He drew my leg up his hip and thrust forcefully against me.

“Take your fucking pants off,” I whispered into his ear and he immediately turned his head and slanted a searing kiss across my lips as I pulled my hand out of his pants.

Zuko pulled back and sat up on one knee. His gaze locked onto mine for a hot moment and then trailed down across my naked body, spread out before him on the couch. I saw his tongue flash at the corner of his mouth as he undid his pants and then slipped them down his hips. His cock bobbed free of the material and I grinned.

“Well, hello there, soldier,” I said saucily and Zuko’s face flamed as he stood and shook his pants off. He turned back to me and grabbed me by the hips, pulling me around to a semi-sitting position on the couch, my ass sliding to the edge of the curtain, toes on the floor. “What are you doing?”

“Eating my dessert,” he said roughly and it was my turn to flame bright red as Zuko got down on the floor in front of me. I pushed my knees together, but, eyes locking with mine again, he gently pushed them open and slid in between my thighs.

Eaten out twice in one day? Whatever I had done to please the Spirit of Luck, I hoped I kept doing it for the rest of my life. If this kept up, he was going to spoil me beyond recollection.

I watched him, biting one fingernail in anticipation as Zuko’s hot breath stirred against my wet pussy.  He pushed his face against my inner thighs, kissing the soft skin and then moving up to my stomach. I squirmed, loving the rasp of his stubble against my sensitive flesh.

Then his fingers brushed me. Gentle at first, pushing in between my labia, spreading me open while his mouth grazed the hollow of my hips. His thumb slid over my clit and I drew in a tiny breath in reaction to the almost immediately zip of pleasure. He rubbed me again and again as I watched, squirming in place.

Then Zuko pushed his face against my wet slit and flicked out his tongue, sliding it along my flesh and up around my clit with a hot swirl that set me burning.

“Don’t stop…” I begged him as I weaved my hand into his hair, lifting my hips up off of the cushion and against his face. He groaned and shut his eyes, his mouth closing over my clit. He sucked at me, his tongue flicking back and forth against my clit. His hand moved down and two of his fingers slid inside of me without hesitation.

“Oh shit…” I breathed, arching my back as he tugged something deep and primal out of me. He massaged his fingers in and out of me as he teased my clit until I couldn’t take it any longer.

I tightened my hand in his hair and tugged him off of me. He was breathing hard, his wet lips open, his gaze hungry, almost predatory. He stared at me for a long moment, the both of us breathing hard.

Then we were on each other, kissing deeply, with wild abandon, as he got up off of his knees and grasped me.

He pushed me onto my back on the couch again, his muscular thighs framing my sore, aching ass as I drew my legs up around his waist. His cock grazed my clit with a little teasing press as he kissed me, deep and rough. 

Zuko pulled back and looked down at me. Our gazes met as he reached down, grasping his cock. Slowly he rubbed the head of his stiff member against my pussy, parting the wet folds and teasing my aching clit. I couldn’t look away from his intense gaze, my mouth open as I panted. He liked watching my reaction to what he was doing to me. When he thumped his cock against my clit with a hard little slap, I wriggled upward, trying to join our bodies. Zuko bit down on his lower lip and slipped down, easing the crown inside of me.

It wasn’t enough. I wanted all of him.

But Zuko wasn’t persuaded by my little mewl of want, or the way my hips twitched upward. He pressed a hand down on my hip and slowly worked the tip of his cock in and out of me, an intense look on his face as he bit down on his lower lip.

I clasped his arms, unable to look away from his face as he slowly fucked me, teased me,  _tormented_ me.

“Fuck me, Zuko,” I breathed out, but he shook his head, leaning over me, the motion bringing out bodies together completely. I gasped as he filled me to the hilt, his cock throbbing inside of me.

“I don’t want to fuck you, Suki,” Zuko whispered, his hips grinding against mine in slow circles. “I want to make love to you.”

_Holy shit. Light me on fire right now. I think I’m in love._

I lifted my head off of the couch and slammed a kiss to his mouth, trying to convey without words just how deeply his words had affected me.

His hips stirred against mine, pulling back and then thrusting forward again in a steady rhythm that swelled over me in waves. I twisted my head to the side, hands clenching his hair and digging into his muscular back as Zuko’s hot body pressed me down against the couch cushions, which bounced beneath us with every stroke.

Zuko’s mouth was on my neck again, nibbling, sucking, raising hickeys that I would have to hide somehow. I didn’t care. I wanted him to leave his mark on me.  I was his. Utterly.

My legs hooked around his waist as I canted my hips forward for more. Zuko’s strokes were long and heart-stopping. I gasped with every one, unable to stop the sound. I found myself digging my nails into his back, scraping furrows as he sped up, only to slow again.

When he flattened his hand on the cushion beside my head and pulled his upper body off of mine, I nearly protested, as the action disengaged our bodies. Zuko reached down, grasped his cock and then rubbed it against my clit again, slowly, wetness trickling down the insides of my thighs.

He looked down at me as he rubbed at my pussy, a little smile playing at the corners of his lips as he watched my reaction. I wondered how I looked to him. I felt flushed and sweaty, so aroused I couldn’t form words that weren’t his name or “ _yes!_ ”

I reached down, putting my hand over his cock, letting it slip against my fingers as he glided his cock against my wet slit. Then, together, we pushed it back inside of me. I sighed at the sensation, lifting up to thrust myself against him. My head went back, a sigh of pleasure leaving me as Zuko wrapped his arms around my middle and pulled me up as if I were nothing but a boneless rag doll.

He sank backwards onto his back, my body draped across his like a sweaty blanket. I readjusted to the sudden change in position, one leg sliding down, toes on the floor, the other leg trapped in between his body and the back of the couch.

I met his gaze as his hands smoothed up my hips and spread on my ribs. Biting down on my lower lip, I started grinding down on him in rough circles, taking every inch of him. Zuko lifted his hips to meet me as I rode him, taking him just like he’d taken me.

I leaned over him, my bouncing breasts inches from his face. He lifted up and dragged one of my breasts into his mouth. I gasped and clutched his head, tearing his mouth away from my sensitive nipples. I kissed him again as his hands slid back to my ass.

He kneaded my buttocks and then pulled back his hand and slapped my tender cheek. I gasped against his mouth and then kissed him harder. He did it again and I bit down on his lower lip, tugging on it. He spanked me again and I buried my face against his neck.

“Yes, yes… do it again… Spank me,” I pleaded as I snapped my hips up and down. Zuko’s warm breath slid against my marked neck.

“You like that?”

“Fuck yes!”

Zuko made an interested sound in the back of his throat, and then clasped my hips. I nearly protested, but stopped when his hips thrust off of the couch high and fast, fucking me hard. I sat up on my elbows, panting as pleasure filled me. Everything was wet friction and sticky skin. My head tilted back as he brought me to the edge.

Zuko slapped my ass again, and the hot sting seemed to travel straight through my pussy and reverberate through my nervous system. I cried out and came with a hard clench, my body spasming around his. I pushed my face into his shoulder and neck as he wrapped his arms around my torso, still thrusting into me as I orgasmed.

It took me a few moments to collect myself. Pleasure stirred through me, quaking, opening little fissures that sent white-hot zaps of needy lust through me. I sat up, pressing my hands flat on his muscular chest, right over the lightning-induced scar there.

Sweat shimmered on both of our bodies, glistening in the candlelight as we moved together.  I shifted, putting my feet up on his thighs for better purchase. I fucked him hard and fast and he didn’t stop me, or try to slow me down.

He wanted it as much as I did.

“Suki…” he panted, a wild look in his eyes. His body was blazing with heat all of a sudden and to my surprise, the candle flames were rising higher and bending toward us as if a breeze were blowing them in our direction. He throbbed inside of me, scorching hot. “I’m gonna…”

I nodded, our bodies singing as they came together. Zuko lifted up into me with a series of bouncing thrusts that left me clinging to the back of the couch for support. A low groan started in the back of Zuko’s throat, his glistening abs tightening as he stiffened beneath me. I reach back and grasped his balls, rolling them in my fingers as they tightened.

“Oh, fuck!” Zuko breathed as all of the candles in the room brightened like mini-supernovas, and then, with one hot puff, they all snuffed out, leaving us in sudden darkness.  At the same time, I felt him cum inside of me with a hot, wet spurt that left him shaking, his head digging back into the arm of the couch, his hands reflexively gripping my hips to still my movements.

I rolled my hips against his, taking every last drop, wringing every moment of pleasure out of him. Finally, he let out a breath, blinking at me as if he was just now coming back to his body. I grinned at him, pulling my hips back so that his softening cock slipped out of me. Cum dripped down my inner thigh as I leaned over him.

His arms went around me as he kissed me, slowly, but with no less heat than before. He rubbed my back and then kneaded my sore ass again. I kind of loved that.

I sighed in contentment as his mouth moved back to my neck. He nuzzled me, seeming just as content as I was, his fingers lazily tracing invisible patterns down the dip of my spine.

“You know, for a guy who wanted to make love to me…you kinda fucked me a little too,” I finally said in a hoarse voice against his shoulder. Zuko tilted his face back and regarded me with an amused look.

“I don’t know why I can’t do both,” he rumbled in reply.

“Good point,” I said, cupping his face. I kissed him, slow and soft, feeling lazy and content and thoroughly, wonderfully fucked. Or made love to.

It didn’t matter, so long as I had Zuko.


	4. Domination!

I woke up slowly, in tiny gulps here and there, aware of my body in dribs and drabs. Everything was warm, from my toes to my nose, which I buried into the warm wall of muscle beneath my cheek. The slow expansion of Zuko’s chest told me that he was still fast asleep. I burrowed against him in our nest of covers, smiling to myself.

For weeks now we’d been playing bed games with each other and not once had the heat between us sizzled out; in fact, it only seemed to grow more with each day. I couldn’t get enough of him. He excited me and surprised me. He had awoken in me something I hadn’t even realized was there.

Moving my head to the side a little bit, I looked up at him, sprawled sideways in the bed, his hair dark against the crisp white pillow. His scar looked mottled in the pre-dawn light, a faint blush of angry, charred flesh that begged to be kissed.  His mouth was slightly open.

How I loved his mouth. The things he could do it with it…

Heat rushed through me as I thought of last night and the night before… and the day before that…

I bit down on my lower lip, shifting against him, but he didn’t wake. Our bodies were curled around each other, him on his back, one leg thrust between mine, my body sprawled across his, pelvises resting together.

My subtle shifting pressed his flaccid cock flat and almost immediately it twitched toward me, swelling with unconscious desire. I glanced back at his face, watching him with contentment. My pelvis rocked forward, pressing downward a little, grazing his cock again.

Again it bobbed, twitching toward me with a will of its own. I smiled as I untangled my hands from the sheets and slid it down his muscled torso, skimming the trail of his pubic hair and slowly, teasingly running the edge of my nails along the underside of his cock before slowly wrapping my hand around it.

I tugged on it, experimentally, and Zuko almost immediately let out a soft sigh, though I knew that he was still asleep. I shifted to the side, pushing my knees into the soft featherbed as I lifted away from him.

My movements stirred him and his hands reached for me, touching my arms briefly and sliding away with a limp, dreamy arousal. I slipped beneath the sheets, sliding my tongue down his stomach toward his thick, throbbing member.

He was stiff and red, beads of moisture glistening at the tip as I squeezed it lightly. My tongue flitted against the satiny skin, nibbling playfully. I pushed my tongue into his foreskin with a soft jab, my hand pumping him with a gentle, lazy motion.

I took him into my mouth slowly, teasingly. My bare breasts seemed to swell as I bent over him, my nipples grazing his legs with each bob of my head. My pussy ached, excited by the taste and scent of him, of the warm heat beneath the blankets and the way he filled my mouth. My tongue bathed him, slipping and sliding over him.

I groaned as I gathered his balls in one hand, rolling them gently, tugging them. When I pulled off of him, I slid my tongue down his veined shaft and suckled each ball into my mouth. Zuko’s hips shifted up and down restlessly as I did. I wondered if he were awake yet…

I let the soft skin of his balls go with a wet pop and then pushed his cock down flat against his stomach. I ran my tongue all over it, teasing the rim and nibbling on it. Then I pushed my tongue into the little slit at the tip.

Zuko groaned and his stomach muscles quivered. I grinned and sucked is cock back into my mouth, drawing on it deep and long, but just as slowly as before.

I felt him shift beneath me and I knew that he was awake now. I didn’t stop; instead I sucked on the blunt tip with a little bit more force.

“Suki…” he mumbled as his hands pushed the covers and found my hair. His fingers sank against my scalp and held me there as I bobbed up on and down in long wet strokes. The air beneath the covers was becoming confining and stuffy from my breath and it was with relief when he pushed them aside.

Sweet, cool air flooded over me as I pulled off of him and glanced up to see him watching me with a dreamy, wondering expression on his face.

“I hope I didn’t wake you up,” I said as I leaned forward, pushing the tip of his cock into my aching nipple. I licked his abs and then took a mouthful of skin between my teeth and gently bit down. Zuko’s fingers tightened in my hair, pulling me back and down toward his erection.

“Oh, I think I’m okay with being up,” he said with his patented dry humor. I laughed softly and, gaze connected with his, drew my tongue along the tip of his cock. Zuko’s head dug back into the pillows, his hips lifting upward, his bobbing cock pushing into my lips. “ _Spirits_ , I love watching you do that…”

The feeling was mutual. I gloried in the feel of his eyes on me; I loved pleasing him, loved the way I could bring him to the brink with just my mouth, loved the way he watched me, those indescribable eyes hot with fire and lust, so ready to take me, to pleasure me, to punish me just as I liked…

As I drew on his cock, shaping it, teasing it, working it, the ache between my legs became acute, throbbing and irresistible. I squeezed my thighs together for relief, but it only made it worse.

I moaned shamelessly when Zuko’s hands slipped down and gathered up my swinging breasts. He pinched and squeezed my nipples, bringing my breasts forward. The ache pulsated through me, swirling down to the gushing wet center of my world as my mouth moved faster around his throbbing, slippery cock.

Zuko’s breathing became irregular, growing shallower as his heartbeat sped up, the rapid thump like a butterfly batting its wings, pulsating against my tongue, radiating through the both of us. I tugged on his balls as his hands dropped from my swollen breasts and pressed into the back of my neck, pushing me down on him.

His hips lifting, filling me with four or five sharp strokes, before his back arched up and his hand slipped away.

His cum burst into my mouth with a hot, salty spurt, gushing down my throat as I swallowed greedily, moaning, my hips thrust out, hand pushing between my legs, unable to keep from touching myself. I drew on his cock, swallowing every last drop as he slipped and slid in out of my mouth, the urgency flooding out of his hips with a deeply contented sigh.

I pulled off of him as he grew limp again, trying to catch my breath. Zuko watched me lick my lips as I sat back on my heels, the sheets falling off of my shoulders and pooling behind me. He could see every inch of my body as my hips thrust forward.

My fingers pushed in between my legs, spreading my wet lips open with a moan. I grazed my clit and gasped, biting down on my lip as I met his hot gaze. His wet cock twitched from its rest against his thigh as he watched me fingering myself.

Zuko shifted up on his elbows, shoving a pillow up behind him as propped himself against the headboard of his massive made-for-fucking bed. He surveyed me with a bright flush down the center of his scarred chest.

“Do you need help with that?” he asked in amusement as I spread my vagina open so that he could see how wet I was for him. I saw the effect I had on him; his cock gave another lovely twitch and swelled slightly.

I shook my head, auburn hair mussed from sleep and his forceful hands falling across my face. I spread my legs a little wider on the bed and tilted my hips forward, one hand bracing me as the other teased my pussy.

“I have to watch?”

“ _Mmm hmmm_ ,” I said and then brought back my hand and sharply slapped my quivering, distended clitoris. The sound was explosive in the dark heat of his bedroom, with the sheer red curtains pulled down around the bed in a sensual haze of crimson intimacy. I moaned, my head tilting back as the sharp, quick pain shocked deep through me and turned immediately to clenching pleasure.

I caressed my clit with my fingertip, eliciting a cool sensation of teasing pleasure. And then I slapped my clit again, harder this time, shocking a little whimper out of me as my vagina clenched and released, my hips lifting, displaying myself for him.

Another slap and I writhed forward. And another. My clit quivered, withdrawing from the stinging pleasure. My fingers sank into me now, pressing through the slick, hot muscles, pushing forward to rub against the springy flesh just inside the opening of my vagina. Hot pleasure washed over me and I squirmed in place, eyes squeezing shut as my body greedily clenched in spasmodic waves.

My thumb pressed gently against my clit, rubbing with a steady pressure that had me shuddering, teetering on the brink of orgasm.

I deliberately left myself there, my body quivering, the muscles in my thighs tightening. I looked at Zuko and saw that his breathing was unsteady, his gaze soft with lust. He was stroking his half-hard cock as he watched me, sweat popping out on his forehead.

“Do you know what you’re doing to me?”

“Of course I do. What are you going to do about it?” I said as I pulled my fingers out of my pussy and then slowly sucked them into my mouth, tasting the sweet flavor of my body as juices ran down the insides of my thighs. I locked eyes with my lover, clear challenge in my expression. He knew what I wanted. What I  _needed._

With a great lunging motion, Zuko launched himself at me, tackling me around the waist and driving me backwards with a soft bounce. His mouth found mine with a hungry growl, his lips sealing over mine as I gasped.

Our bodies collided, pressing painfully into each other. My arms encircled him, my pelvis pushing forward against the sleek thigh pressing between my legs. Zuko moaned as I ground against him, pushing my hot sex against him shamelessly. My hands found his hair, clasping, clenching as his tongue pressed in between my lips.

I moaned as he kissed me, moaned as he pushed my hip down onto the bed, pinioning me, his thigh drawing back so that I couldn’t grind against him any longer. His other hand was beneath me, cradling me against the covers as his muscular body pressed into mine.

My aching nipples came to throbbing life again as he pressed his chest against my breasts, his warm weight pinning me to the bed, the scent of him—hot, spicy, erotic—filled my senses. I kissed him long and hard, reveling in it, in him.

Our tongues slid together, massaging as I lifted my head off of the bed, my whole body one big, sparking ache as I arched into him. He shifted against me, tilting my hips so that he fell between my thighs completely. I sighed against his lips, nibbling at them as our bodies pushed together with a sensual grind.

His hand found my left breast as he lifted away a little. His strong fingers pressed into my skin, skillfully tugging at me. His fingers plucked the hard pink stone of my nipple, the puckering skin pulling taut as I sighed against his mouth. I loved his hot hands, the way he seemed to brand me, the way every nerve in my body awoke just for him.

I closed my thighs on his narrow hips, one hand on his lower back, trying desperately to push our hips together so that I could rub against him again, but he wasn’t having it. His hips shifted back as he nibbled down my chin with a hot groan and then slid his tongue down my neck, collarbone and finally, gathering the sweet flesh of my breast between the soft of his lips.

I whimpered, head thrown back, eyes closed, as I pressed him to my breast. His mouth slid wetly across my nipple, bathing it with his hot breath as the tip of his tongue teased the distended bud.  Then he drew on it, suckling it with a hungry groan. The soft suction set off little tremors in me and I squirmed on the bed beneath him as he slowly pulled my breast up and out, stretching the nipple between his teeth.

He let it go with soft pop, my breast bouncing. He pushed and molded it, slipping his other hand up to do the same to my right.

And this one he bathed in kisses, soft, questing, lustful, reverent. I was half-mad with need. I wanted him to touch me, to slide his skillful fingers in between my legs, where everything was wet, hot, aching with need.

He was torturing me because I had teased him, made him watch me fingering myself. He sucked my nipples until they were dark red and ached like a second heartbeat. Then his hand slipped down and combed through my pubic hair for one heart-racing moment.

Then his fingers came down on my clit with a soft little slap that had me lifting my hips, crying out against his lips. Zuko pulled back, pulling a sexy, lopsided grin as my hips sank back down onto the bed. Then he smacked me again, the feeling tearing through me with an exquisite ripple of sensation.

My tongue darted out, flicking his bottom lip playfully as my hips twisted against his, trying to gain traction against his hand. He complied, sealing his palm down across my weeping center as I writhed against the heat of his skin.

“Do it again,” I breathed as his lips nibbled mine, the heel of his palm rocking against my pubis, pushing little tremors of sensation and emotion through me. Zuko’s tongue slowly teased its way into my mouth and I sucked on it, desperate to show him how much I wanted it.

He drew back his hand and then slapped my clit again. I gave a cry, but his kiss stifled me. My arms tightened on his shoulders, his muscles quivering beneath the clench of my fingers. As the pain spread out into abject pleasure, Zuko’s fingers slid down through my folds and slid easily into my vagina. Three of his fingers pushed into me, pressing, rubbing, massaging, as I squirmed beneath him.

Zuko moaned as my body clenched around his fingers. I felt the dig of his cock against my inner thigh and thrilled to the sensation of him rubbing it against me with a steady circling of his hips.

I reached down and grasped him and he immediately choked off a moan and pulled away from my mouth. His fingers withdrew from inside of me and he grasped my wrist, pinning it to the bed.

We stared at one another for a long moment and I saw the hungry spark in his eyes, a spark that I knew was in mine as well. I knew he wanted it. And he knew that I wanted it.

Zuko pulled off of me, leaving me abandoned in my naked, wanton sprawl against the covers. He sat back against the pillows, lounging like the king he was against the headboard, his knees slightly apart so that I had a clear view of his hard cock and the shadowy softness of his scrotum. Zuko studied me for a long, lusty moment. Then lifted his hand and crooked his finger at me.

“Come here.” I rolled over onto my hands and knees on the massive bed, flipping my hair over my shoulder as I stared at him, prolonging the moment. “ _Now_.”

A shiver coursed over me at the clear command in his voice and I grinned, crawling toward him on the bed. I dropped my head, running my tongue from balls to tip, pushing his bobbing cock flat against his stomach, and then continuing the lick up the center of his delicious body, straight to his stubbled chin.

Zuko’s hands came up, sliding along my jaw, up my arm. He stared at me, dark intent in his gaze for one hot moment as I begged him silently.

Then, with a hard wrench, his hand came down on the back of my neck and he shoved me across his lap, my face in the blankets, ass in the air, his cock digging into my stomach. I squeezed my thighs together, turning my face to the side as I struggled only a little in his hands.

“Tell me what you want, Captain,” he said softly, and the sound of his voice was like a hot lick along my spine. I turned my head to meet his feverish gaze, biting my lip as my plump ass jutted into the air.

“Spank me.”

“Are you sure? You have drilling with the Kyoshi Warriors today. You’ll be so sore when I’m done with you that you won’t be able to move without moaning,” he said and I knew he wasn’t bluffing. Last week I’d been sore for days after he’d bent me over his desk again. I’d loved every second of it, every sharp smack, every moan, and every tear that had escaped me.

He had unleashed something in me, something that I hadn’t even guessed existed within me. And with each moment I spent in his arms, overwhelmed with passion, wallowing in pleasure, drenched in need, it only grew stronger; this need to please him, to be dominated by him.

I, Suki, Captain of the Kyoshi Warriors, chosen at age thirteen to command, to lead, to be in control at all times, to protect, to guard, to watch, was grateful to put down the burden of that control, to give myself over to my Fire Lord. He could do whatever he wanted with me. I loved every moment of it. I craved him and the heavy fall of his hand on my ass.

Never would I have thought that the simple act of spanking me (among other things) would arouse me so much, to send my body into such a fever pitch that I had only to think about being bent over his knee to get aroused beyond all decency.

For his part, our bed games seemed to calm something in Zuko, something unsure and unsteady. So often he was out of control, angry, either stressed by the pressure of being the Fire Lord, or just bogged down in his usual self-doubts, doubts that time and experience hadn’t erased from him.

Being with me helped that, I think. Here, together, there was control. There was no doubt. There was pleasure and pain, understanding and passion. The rules were simple, our roles relished by the both of us.

I could give up control and luxuriate in the giving, and he could grasp that same control, and gain strength and confidence from it. Already I had seen a change in him. The last few weeks had made for a different Zuko, a Zuko with confidence, renewed vigor….I like to think I had had something to do with that. 

“Please,” I said, biting down on my lower lip, my bitten nipples pressing into the mattress, my ass lifting in entreaty. Zuko’s hot hands caressed my smooth skin, gripping each buttocks, spreading me open. I moaned at the feeling, at the hot throb, unsatisfied throb between my legs. I pushed myself down, rubbing against his stiff cock, feeling it dig into my navel as if he might penetrate me through it. “Do it…”

I closed my eyes, losing myself in the soft stroke of his fingers, anticipating the sting of his palm, flexing my thighs, my toes, waiting .

It came with a hard, stinging spank, his palm solidly landing on my right buttock, making me bounce on his lap, a needy moan pushing out of me. He caressed me again, softly and then before I knew it, he spanked me again. And again and again and again until I was writhing in place, lifting my ass into the stinging pain, my pubic lips dripping with desire.

Zuko’s hand came down on the back of my neck and he kept me in place, spanking first one cheek, then the other with a hard hand. My skin felt hot and tight as I squirmed to both get away from the sting and to ready myself for the next one.

His cock throbbed beneath me and I wriggled down on it with a desperate urge to feel it inside of me. Arousal slammed into me, chasing my heartbeat, blood rushing in my ears and flooding to fill the creamy skin of my buttocks. It wasn’t long before my skin was boiling hot and probably as red as my nipples.

The blows came in rapid succession, my moans filling the hot, still air. Zuko was breathing hard, as aroused as I was. I glanced back at him and his gaze connected to mine.

“Have you had enough?” he said roughly, shaking with need as my body ground against his cock. “I think you’ve had enough.”

“More, please, more,” I squeezed out, lifting my ass again. His hand came down with a loud, stinging smack, shocking a loud gasp out of me, tears squeezing from my eyes. “Harder!”

He complied and harder and harder came his hand, slapping my ass, lifting my buttocks from below and letting them bounce with a tingle that spread up my spine. He slapped my thighs too, leaving no part of me untouched, all of me pink and aching. I kicked my legs, attempting to get away, but he held me tightly, giving me what I needed.

Finally, as I shuddered, tears pressing out of my eyes. A single sob escaped me, and I shuddered in place. His hand came down one last time and I pushed my face into the bed, shaking from the cruel wallop.

“Good girl,” he said softly and I felt his fingertips lightly caressing my aching buttocks. I moaned and shivered as he spread his fingers and sank them into my dripping vagina, the sensation as calming as ice along my flayed nerves. “You like that, don’t you?”

I cried into the blankets, my whole being focusing now on the hot dry ache of my buttocks and the slow massage of his fingers in and out of my body. Yes. More. I needed more.

“Suki,” he said, and his left hand reached beneath my face, turning it toward him so that he could see the tears on my reddened face. I caught his hand and sucked his fingers into my mouth, drawing them deep into the sucking heat. His eyes closed and I felt his cock twitch beneath me.

His fingers pressed into me, lifting my pelvis up with a hard yank that had me gasping. Then he pulled his fingers out of me, out of my mouth, and grasped my hips. I moved with him, limply, aching with desire even as my boiling red buttocks twinged.

He moved me around until I was straddling him, his cock pressing into my wet cleft, grazing my clitoris with a rough jab that made me hiss. Zuko smoothed back my hair and kissed the tears from the corners of my eyes as I looped my arms around his neck, my whole body shivering at the sensations cresting over me.

I opened my eyes, and Zuko and I stared at one another in perfect understanding. There was no shame, no regret, not reticence. We had spent the last few weeks feeling each other out, testing our boundaries, defining this love affair as something all our own.

Zuko accepted my need to yield, to stop fighting, even for a moment, even if it was just here, with him. He saw my desire for what it was and he opened me up to it like a flower. And I, I gave him the one thing he had never accepted about himself; that he was worthy of power and praise. That he could control, dominate, rule, while still being merciful. While still being loved.

We didn’t say these things to each other, but the words and their meanings were plainly written in every gesture, every kiss, caress and punishment.

I stared at my friend, my lover and saw something in his gaze that melted me to my core. I leaned forward and kissed his scar, my lips lingering over the melted skin. My tongue slid against the rough ruin, sliding up to the knotted and dark discoloration of his eyelid. I kissed his closed eye, slowly, softly, thanking him, loving him, accepting him.

Zuko shook in my arms, his hands sliding along my sweaty back and then spreading on my aching buttocks. He pulled back and stared at me and I smiled and kissed his mouth, tasting him with a slow languor.

Zuko’s hands lifted me up and then lowered me down on his cock. I sighed against his mouth, tugging on his lower lip as my hot, ready body greedily swallowed his. I came to rest on the cradle of his hips, our bodies sealed together. A great shudder passed through the both of us as he nibbled on my lips.

My hands pushed into his thick hair as I worked my body around his stiff length, my hips clenching and releasing with an electric flood of pleasure.

Everything was hot, wet and erotic, the scent of sex on the air like heavy perfume. I bathed in it, bathed in us, wallowing in the pleasure that came on in waves as I rocked my hips against his. Zuko moved with me, his hands digging into my swollen ass.

When I pulled up, just the tip of him throbbing inside of me, his sharp moan of longing burst through the air. I impaled myself on him again, the urgent need we had both teased out of me demanding satisfaction. Zuko’s head went back on the ornately carved headboard, with its gold inlay and ornate carvings.

I wondered idly if he’d enjoy tying me to it while he took me rough and hard. A grin caught my lips. He saw it and pulled me against him, taking my mouth with hungry avarice. My nipples ached as I bounced against his chest, my feet lifting to lay along his thighs, to better gain leverage over him. I rode him in long strokes that became smaller and faster as need urged me on.

My whole body quivered, wet and clenching around his. My hips snapped forward and back in a frantic rhythm, chasing the rabaroo down the black hole of ecstasy.  I was his. Utterly his.

Zuko’s mouth attached to my throat, biting and sucking until shivers burst down my skin in a rippling, nipple-tightening wave, the shiver centering in my throbbing clit.

“ _Yes_ …” I moaned into his neck, clutching the solid headboard, slamming my hips down on his, aching for release that seemed to tantalize me…

His hips lifted to meet my thrusts, filling me until I didn’t know where I ended and he began. It didn’t matter. I could feel his heartbeat against mine, and feel the echo of it throbbing inside of me.

“Cum with me,” he gasped out against my neck, one hand seizing my hair painfully, tugging my head against his shoulder. It was a command and I would obey; what choice did I have against the onslaught of his pleasure.

I was gasping against his skin, gripping tightly to the headboard, to him, to reality. All I could feel was his skin, the hot play of his blood, his power just beneath the surface. Surely he was lighting me on fire, turning me into a blaze in the shape of a woman, undoing me, remaking me from the embers. A phoenix.

His hand came down on my ass with a hard slap that shocked me, that send vibrations of pleasure through my lower body. I stiffened over him, intimate muscles clenching like a fist. And then I exploded, orgasm shattering me with a scream that surely must have reverberated throughout the palace.

Zuko’s hand clamped to my mouth as he pumped into me, riding the heels my intense orgasm into his own with more grace and composure than I had possessed.

I felt him cum inside of me with a hot surge, my wet body welcoming it. Zuko gathered me against him, showering my face, my neck, my breasts with tiny, moist kisses.

My whole body was limp, sated, boneless. When his mouth found mine I kissed him as hard as I dared, deeply, wrapping my limbs around his neck. It seemed we clung to each other for hours, but it was only a few minutes before he pulled his soft cock out of me, juices running down the insides of my thighs.

Slowly he shifted me over in the bed, laying me down on my stomach as my buttocks throbbed at the slightest touch.

I’d be lucky if I could sit down properly today. A secret smile crossed my lips as he kissed my shoulder and smoothed my hair back. Then he got up from the bed and crossed to his wardrobe. He pulled out a jar of cream and a towel, and then poured water from the side table into a small bowl.

This he brought back to the bed as I watched him demurely. He dipped the towel into the water and then gently cleansed me, the towel soft against my thighs.

I sighed happily and propped my hands on my forearms, losing myself in the bliss of his touch. When he was done washing off the remains of our lovemaking, he took up the pot of cream and turned back to me.

“This might sting,” he said and kissed my temple, his hot hand laying gently along my back for a moment and then smoothing down to my swollen buttocks. He squeezed me and I gasped, glaring at him, but he put his mouth to the hot skin the next moment and I relaxed again.

He smoothed the cold cream over my skin and I sighed in delight at his care. Gently he messaged the cooling lotion in, the medicine smell of mint filling the air. He gently kneaded me, massaging, working it into my abraded flesh.

 _This man,_  I thought languidly, _this man knows how to touch me. Knows what I need and what I love. Knows how to turn me on and how far to push me… And when he brings me over the edge, he makes sure to catch me when I come back down._

_I love him._

My eyes popped open with the shock of it, the resonating effect of it as it spread throughout my well-used limbs. It had not been an idle post-coital thought, brought on by an extra-strength, sex-before-breakfast orgasm and I knew it.

I was in love with Zuko.

I glanced back at him and saw the content concentration on his handsome face as he massaged the hurt from my sore buttocks. Should I tell him?  _Could_  I tell him? I wasn’t sure that we were at that stage of our relationship yet.

Sexually-charged spankings,  _yes_. Declarations of love,  _no_.

Zuko wiped his hands on a clean corner of the damp towel and then brought his mouth back down to my buttocks. His gentle kiss was like an artist’s signature on a work of art. I felt like his masterpiece, in any case, as his hand slid up my back and his body lay along mine in the bed. I shifted to the side to face him, grinning at the look on his face.

“What?” he asked shyly, flushing as I studied him.

“You’re spoiling me,” I said as his hand rubbed my shoulder. I lifted my hand and touched the center of his chest.

“Am I? If I recall, I’m the one who woke up to a blow job. If anything,  _you’re_  spoiling  _me_ ,” he said gently and kissed the tip of my nose.  He pulled back and his gaze flicked down my body toward my ass. “Are you…?”

I wiggled my hips on the bed. “I’m  _wonderful._  I don’t think I can move, but I’m wonderful.”

Zuko chuckled, his fingertips playing along the dip of my spine. “How about we don’t move from this bed for the rest of the day?”

“Mmm, I’d love to.  _But_ ,” I said with a gusty sigh, sitting up on my elbow. “You have to review your troops this morning and meet with the shipbuilders this afternoon and I have to run drills with the girls, and then teach a self-defense class to the little Lords and Ladies of the Royal Court.”

“Screw all of that,” Zuko mumbled, leaning toward me and kissing the hollow below my ear, sending goosebumps down my skin. “I just want you…”

The feeling was more than mutual. Everything in my life seemed to pale in comparison to being with him. I was desperately in danger of becoming obsessed. Certainly I was already addicted to the sex. No sooner did we part than I felt that hard craving for him come over me.

“You really think your Council is going to leave you alone to let you fuck your bodyguard all afternoon?” I said, though my grin wasn’t exactly genuine. Word has gotten out that we were sleeping together and, while no one had been outright hostile about, there was a general air of disapproval hanging over us.

I was just a bodyguard, an low-born Earth Kingdom peasant…and somehow I had seduced the Fire Lord. I was even more amazed at the whole thing than the Royal Court was. 

 _But he’s mine_ , I thought stubbornly.  _Mine._

“Dammit,” Zuko said in frustration. “You’re right.”

“Of course I am,” I said, and kissed him solidly. “But if you’re good today…and do all your chores, maybe after dinner you can tie me up and have your way with me?”

Zuko’s eyes blazed with new light and he sat up on his elbow, blood suffusing his face. “Are you serious?”

“Deadly.” Zuko breathed out and I saw lust in his gaze and I suddenly knew that I hadn’t been wrong in bringing it up, in pushing the boundaries again. He  _wanted_ to tie me up, but he hadn’t wanted to ask. It amused me. Though I gave up control in the bedroom, I was certainly the leader in getting us there. I think we both liked it that way, this give and take, this balance.

Spirits, he excited me. I couldn’t remember ever being this consumed by someone, this impassioned and fascinated, so eager to please.

“After dinner then…” he said with a flash of a smile, capturing my mouth again. His kiss pulled me down, tumbled me onto my back in the sheets, my sore buttocks throbbing in time to my heartbeat. I felt Zuko’s hand on my hip, sliding down between my legs and into the hot wet slit of my sex, so ripe and swollen from our lovemaking that he only had to skim my flesh to set off a chain of explosions throughout my nerves.

_Yes. More. I need more…_

A knock at the door interrupted us, the sound annoying and insistent. I knew who was on the other end of that knock and growled against Zuko’s lips in sheer frustrated dislike. I had been wrong. The Court disapproved of me, but Zuko’s obsequious and judgmental valet outright  _hated_  me.

Zuko lifted his head and glanced at the door with a little look of annoyed impatience and then glanced back at me.

“Duty calls. You probably should have been up an hour ago.”

Zuko’s grin was cheeky. “I  _was_.”

“He’ll just keep knocking,” I pointed out as Zuko’s hand fell away from me. Damn that bushy-browed asshole of a servant. He was constantly coming between us. And I didn’t like the way that he looked at me when Zuko’s back was turned; like I was a nasty stain on his pristine white sheets. Or worse yet, like I was some sort of scheming woman of the night.

Zuko heaved out a sigh and rolled off of the bed, padding gloriously naked over to the door. I watched his butt as he walked, enjoying the way the early morning light bathed his muscular back. He unlatched the door and stuck his head into the tiny crack.

“Your breakfast is ready, Fire Lord Zuko. Do you need help dressing? Or showing your companion to the door?”

I rolled my eyes as I sat up and swung my legs off of the side of the bed, searching for my clothing, which Zuko had torn off of me last night. I tried to remember where. In the bedroom or in the living room? A quick survey of the floor told me that it had to be living room of the suite. Which meant Wu-Ten had probably already picked it up and sent it off to the laundry under the guise of being helpful. But really he’d just wanted to be a jerk and leave me stranded in Zuko’s suite with no clothing in some passive-aggressive bid to shame me or something. He’d done this to me twice before; I had lost my faith in his “helpfulness”.

Aggravated, I grabbed Zuko’s robe off of the door of his wardrobe and slung it on. It would have to do until I got back to my room—a room I hadn’t slept in once since we’d started sleeping together. I really didn’t miss sleeping alone, not when the alternative was waking up in his arms.

Damn. He really  _was_  spoiling me.

“No thank you, Wu-Ten,” Zuko said into the crack. “You may leave me for now. I’ll take breakfast with Suki alone.”

“Are you certain?” The disapproval practically rolled off of him in waves. I wondered for a moment how long he’d been in the outer room of the suite. Had he heard us having sex? The idea made me want to throw up a little and I was suddenly glad that Zuko

“Thank you, Wu-Ten. That will be all,” Zuko said and snapped the door shut smartly. He turned back to me with a sigh, his eyebrows rising as he saw me in his robe.  He stopped and glanced at the door, probably realizing what had happened to my clothing too. He nibbled on his lower lip and reached for another robe. He belted it and turned to me, saying in a rush, “Umm…you know, I was thinking…maybe you should leave a few changes of clothing here? Maybe a robe or…your makeup…?”

My cheeks felt hot all of a sudden as I approached him, smoothing down his robe over his broad chest.

“I think that’s a great idea.”

“You do?” he asked eagerly and I nodded and grinned, standing on tiptoe to kiss him. His hand cradled the back of my neck, thumb stroking the hollow beneath my ear. He pulled me against him and it was like we were back in that big bed again. All of my nerve endings ignited as he kissed me thoroughly; Zuko never did anything by halves, much to my delight.

When we pulled apart, my stomach was growling. “Come on, I’m starving.”

“Me too,” he said as I walked past him toward the door. As I passed him, he swatted my ass, sending off shockwaves of pain and pleasure through my swollen buttocks and thighs.

I bit down on my lip.

Damn him.

I was _definitely_  in love.


	5. Submission!

_Three Weeks Later_

* * *

 

I pulled up short in front of Zuko’s door, trying not to let my excitement show. My hands jingled at my sides, brushing the fan at my waist in a nervous gesture. Ty Lee stood outside of the door, her makeup perfect—as usual—and a grin on her face, also as usual.

“Good evening, Captain. I didn’t know you were on duty tonight,” the acrobat said formally, making me blush beneath the white makeup. It was pretty much common knowledge that Zuko and I were sleeping together and even though I hadn’t discussed it with the other Kyoshi Warriors yet, they loved to tease me by dropping hints and broad innuendos.

“Fire Lord Zuko…uh…invited me to dinner,” I said with a tight-lipped grin.

“Oh? I wonder what he’ll be eating tonight…” Ty Lee said, with wide-eyed innocence, though the corners of her lips quirked a bit. “Probably his favorite pie.”

My eyebrow lifted as I glared at my friend. “Well, he does like eating it every night.”

“Lucky pie.”

“Indeed.”

Ty Lee and I stared at one another. I could tell she was trying not to laugh and only just holding on. I made a resolution to talk to her about Zuko and I. I had to tell  _someone_ , after all. Well, okay, I wouldn’t tell her  _all_ of it; I wouldn’t even know how to begin explaining this relationship between us, after all, or the kinky nature of things. But I knew I needed to talk to someone about how I felt for Zuko.

“Shall I leave you to it?” Ty Lee asked me, as I chewed on my bottom lip.

“I think that would be best,” I said stiffly as Ty Lee’s hazel eyes danced with amusement.

“Well, then…have a nice night, Captain. I’ll see you in the morning,” she said and walked away with a bounce in her step. I watched her go for a moment and then turned back to the door, feeling that all-too-familiar flutter in my stomach at the thought of seeing Zuko.

He’d had an early meeting this morning, and I’d had a training session with the daughters of the nobility, a task I enjoyed immensely, even though my rear end had been delightfully sore all day. I thought of Zuko’s playful spanking that morning before breakfast, my whole body heating up.

That man owns me. Body and soul. And I get the feeling that he knows it.

I knocked on the door lightly, but didn’t have to wait long for an answer. Almost immediately the ornate door swung open and I was unceremoniously yanked into the room.

“Zuko!”

“I missed you…” Zuko breathed and then he was kissing me. My back hit the door, closing it as Zuko pushed me against it. His mouth tasted wonderful, like heavy cream and berries, and I eagerly slid my hands over his bare chest, drinking him in. His tongue flicked into my mouth with a teasing caress as I moaned.

I could kiss him all day, every day, and I wouldn’t get tired of it. Not even a little bit.

His hands cradled my face and then worked into my hair, pulling my helmet off and tossing it down to the floor with a soft clunk. I smiled against his lips and nipped him gently.

“So eager,” I said, giggling as his hands tightened in my hair. He tilted my face toward his and I saw the gleam of his topaz eyes.

“I’ve been dreaming about this all day,” he said and kissed me gently. Then he pushed away from the door and grasped my hand, tugging me with him. “I hope you’re ready.”

“Ready? For what?”

“For my surprise,” he said, glancing back at me. I lifted an eyebrow.

“You have a surprise for me?”

“Yeah.  _Surprise!_ ” he said with a mischievous grin.  _Hnng…_  I love it when he does that; unwinds enough to smile and joke around. He’s so uptight sometimes it’s like his head is going to pop off. But sometimes…sometimes he’s absolutely carefree.

I  _love_  it. When he’s like this, it usually mean he’s in the mood to play.  _Our_ kind of play.

“Okay, so what is it?” I persisted as Zuko pulled me into his darkened bedroom. I nearly tripped over my own two feet on the thick rug and stumbled into him. Zuko caught me by the shoulder and wrenched me against him in the darkness. His arms wrapped around me, strong and warm. I practically melted on the spot. “Hey, how about a little light in here?”

Zuko’s nose nuzzled mine and then slid over to my ear. The hot caress of his breath rose up my neck and gusted against my ear, stirring my hair as shivers ran down my sides. “That’s not part of the surprise…”

I tilted my head as he ran his lips down my neck, the shivers gripping me with delicious anticipation.

“You gonna fuck me in the dark?”

“Not exactly,” he said with an amused little rumble. Then I felt his hands on my clothing. He’d become an expert at getting me out of my uniform over the past couple of months. His hands didn’t hesitate as they unbuckled my padded gambeson and tossed it onto the floor. My gloves, outer coat, and pants followed, leaving me in my undershirt, panties and shoes.

I felt Zuko drop to his knees in front of me, and steadied myself on his shoulder as he unlaced my boots and pulled them off.

“You know, I haven’t even showered, right?” I said as he stripped off my socks next. “I’m all gross and sweaty…”

“I know,  _I love it_ ,” Zuko murmured, clasping my thighs and burying his face against my stomach. I bit down on my lip, my whole body twanging like a plucked string. His lips were warm as they marked my belly, nipping and nibbling and sending little shockwaves down into my crotch. “You smell so good…”

My hands sank into his thick hair as his hands spread up the backs of my thighs and clutched my ass. He kneaded me, grasping my cheeks and spreading the apart, then squeezing hard. I groaned and closed my eyes in the darkness, my pulse quickening.

“Zuko…”

His mouth worked down the front of my panties and closed on my mound. I gasped and wriggled against him, the sensation of his hot, wet mouth so close and yet  _not close enough_  torturous. He lifted his mouth and I felt him take a shuddering breath.

“Not yet,” he said roughly and then jerked to his feet. His mouth hovered over mine for a moment. “Do you want to play a game?”

Desire shot sparks through my skin.  I answered him without hesitation. “Yes.”

I felt him smile as he kissed me gently on the lips. When he withdrew, he whispered, “Do you remember the safe words?”

“Yes.”

“What are they, Suki?” he prompted gently.

“ _Sun_  if things are getting too intense and I want you to slow down.  _Dragon_  if I want to stop,” I said breathlessly. “What are you going to do to me?”

“It’s a surprise. Do you trust me?”

“Of course I do,” I said and kissed him, rising up on tiptoe and clasping his face in both hands. He kissed me deeply, pulling me against him for one hot, blistering moment, his skin against mine. The only thing he was wearing was a pair of worn pants he liked to wear to bed. They hung off of his hips in a way that frankly made my head spin. I wish I could see him, but the room was too dark.

Zuko pulled back and grasped my hands, tugging me toward the bed. I could sense his excitement. Whatever he had planned, I knew we were both going to enjoy it.

“Stand here,” he said, planting me firmly in place. I stood there in anticipation for a few moments as Zuko walked behind me. A moment later he turned back to me and then slipped something over my eyes. The little bit of vision I’d had in the dark room was immediately cut off as he tied the satin blindfold over my eyes.

“A blindfold?”

“Shhh, you,” he said and nipped my shoulder. The next moment, I felt warmth flare up around me, followed by a subtle haze of heat. I couldn’t tell, but I assumed that Zuko had lit some candles. Of course. Now that I was blindfolded, he could see what he was doing. “Turn around.”

I turned around on the spot, still chewing my lip. Zuko grasped my left hand and slid a leather cuff around my wrist. I hitched in a breath as he tightened the buckles, pulling the cuff snugly into place. He did the same with the other hand.

“Too tight?” he asked as I twisted my wrists, and discovered that both cuffs were connected by what felt like only a few inches of chain. My lips twisted.

“No.”

“Good,” he said, grasping the chain. I heard metal clinking and realized that there was a second, longer chain being attached to my wrists. Excitement thrilled through me. I loved it when he tied me up, but mostly we’d stuck to tethering me to the bed. “Arms up.”

I lifted my bound wrists up above my head as I heard Zuko connect the longer chain to something. He pulled the chain, lifting my arms even more. Then he did something else, and suddenly I realized that I wouldn’t be able to put my arms down again until he released me. There was no tautness in the chain. I was well and truly caught.

My feet were unbound though and I shifted in place as Zuko walked around me, admiring his work. He ran his hand along my arms, up to my wrists in the leather cuffs. I squirmed in place, struggling a little as I felt how vulnerable I was at the moment.

“Comfy?”

“I don’t know…” I said, trying to track him as he circled me. It was strange being trussed up with a blindfold on. I wanted to see him…but not seeing him also excited me. “What are you going to do to me?”

I heard a small clatter and then Zuko’s hand on my stomach, lifting my tight, binding undershirt. Something cold and metallic slipped between my skin and the shirt and I gasped at the sudden shock of it there.

“What am I going to do to you?” Zuko ruminated softly as I heard the slow  _snip-snip-snip_ of scissors. “Absolutely everything.”

He snipped my undershirt up the middle, careful not to catch my skin as he did so. I bit my lip, my skin quivering with each snip, until finally my under shirt fell open, my breasts pushing forward. Zuko sighed and snipped the shirt away until it fell on the floor at our feet.

He ran the flat of the closed scissors against my breasts, the cold metal searing against my nipples. I moaned a little as they tightened in reaction. Then he ran the scissors down my stomach, using the tip this time. I squirmed away from the sharp sting as he lightly scratched me with it and then slipped it down into the side of my panties, along the hollow of my hip.

He gently cut my panties off, first one side and then the other. When the material fell away, I felt Zuko’s fingertip gently caress down the center of my body, over the tiny welt he’d made with the tip of the scissors, and then down into my pubic hair.

“Beautiful,” he said and then his hand slid away, leaving me aching with anticipation. He turned away and walked behind me. “Now…we’re going to play a game, Suki. I have ten items here. Each of them is different. I want you to guess what that item is using your sense of touch. If you get it right, you get rewarded. If you get it wrong, you get punished. Do you understand?”

I licked my lips and tightened my hands, tugging at the chain holding my arms above my head. “Yes, sir.”

Zuko chuckled at my eagerness and then turned away from me again. I heard him picking things up and putting them down on what sounded like a metal tray.

“First item. Are you ready?” he said, coming up to stand behind me.  I nodded and a moment later I felt something soft glide along my skin. It tickled as he ran it from my shoulder, across my back and down my spine, then over my buttocks. Then he slipped around me, running it up stomach and over each of my breasts, then along my underarms. I squirmed in place, smiling at the sensation.

“Feathers,” I said as he chuckled.

“That was an easy one,” he said, putting the feathers aside. “But you’ve earned your reward.”

The next moment, he bent over me, pulling my right nipple into his mouth. I gasped at the suddenness of it, the hot intensity of his mouth completely shocking me. I bucked into his mouth as his hand caught my waist, steadying me in place as I tugged on the chain. His other hand cupped my left breast, kneading it, plucking at my aching nipple.

He sucked on my nipple, deeply, hard enough to make me gasp. Pleasure burst down my skin as my breasts swelled. He moaned and nibbled at me, then released me. He pushed both of my breasts together and buried his face in between them, kissing my skin, running his tongue up and around. Then he latched onto my left nipple, pulling it hard between his lips, lifting my whole breasts. He let it go with a soft pop, my breast bouncing as it fell back. His tongue circled my nipples in turn, and then he blew on them, the cool air absolutely torturous as tingles rippled through me and quaked down my body, setting off a hot, deep tingle between my legs.

“ _Unnng…_  Zuko…” I managed, my head tipping back as he took each breast into his hands and palmed them, his thumbs rubbing against the hard flesh of my throbbing nipples.

“Good girl,” he whispered, his hands falling away from me with one last squeeze. My breasts felt heavy now, my skin all-too-eager for his attentions. “Item number two.”

I turned my wrists, catching hold of the chain as I waited for…I didn’t know what. Zuko came to stand in front of me and then I felt something cold and metal run along my collarbone and up my neck. It was small. Sort of round, but with what felt like some sharp edges. He ran it up my neck and over my lips. My tongue darted out and I tasted metal. He seemed to be waiting for me to guess what it was, but I was stumped.

“What is it, Suki?” He ran it along my aching breasts and then down the center of my body. “Make a guess.”

“I don’t know. A ring?” I blurted. Zuko’s hand dropped away and I heard him sigh.

“Wrong. It was an Earth Kingdom coin.”

Dammit. I should have known that. I swallowed. Now I would be punished…

My lips pressed together as Zuko walked away. I heard the coin clatter onto the metal tray as he put it down, then I heard him pick up something else. I wished I could see all of a sudden. Being blindfolded was both exciting and terrifying at the same time.

_Now I know how Toph feels…_

“What are you doing?”

“You answered wrong and I’m going to punish you now,” Zuko said and I tensed. A moment later, he clipped something metal to first my left nipple, then my right. I gasped at the sudden pinch to my overstimulated flesh. It didn’t hurt, but it didn’t feel particularly good either. I squirmed in place, whimpering. “Shhh…relax…breathe…”

Zuko’s calming voice soothed me and I took a deep breath, letting the throbbing of my clamped nipples radiate through my body. I breathed in and felt a dangling chain brush my stomach, then realized that the clamps were connected to each other. Even as I realized it, I felt Zuko grasp the chain and tug a little. I gasped as the throb in my breasts went deeper and deeper, thudding through me until all of my body was focused on the pressure in my nipples. The feeling was  _intense._

“Item number three,” Zuko said calmly and walked back to his little tray of delights and punishments. I suddenly realized that he wasn’t going to take the clamps off. Oh, that bastard…

When he stood in front of me again, I was still breathing hard, trying not to moan as my breasts ached, sending little thrills down between my legs. I wanted him to touch me, but I didn’t know if I could take much more, and we’d only just gotten started…

Something wooden ran along my lips and down my chin, then lifted away before I could properly catalogue how it felt. He touched me with it again on my thigh, running it down to my knee and then sliding up between my legs. I whimpered when he briefly caressed my pussy with it, opening my lower lips with a gentle nudge. But he moved on again, teasing me with the item. What was it? I couldn’t seem to think past my aching breasts and those damned clamps.

“What am I holding, Suki?” he whispered, sliding it along my lower stomach.

“I…I don’t know…” I gasped as he flicked the item against one of the clamps.

“Need a hint?”

“Yes…”

There was a soft sound, a sound I knew as well as I knew the sound of my own voice; the sound of unfolding paper. A second later a gust of air was waved into my heated face and down along my body. The air stirred between my legs, tickling as it wafted through my pubic hair.

“Come on, Suki, concentrate. You know what this is, baby…” Zuko coaxed me as he ran the edge of the fan along my stomach.  _Fan!_

“It’s a fan!” I burst out, grasping the word as if through a haze. Zuko made a pleased sound.

“Very good. Even though you needed a hint, you’ve earned a reward,” he said, tossing the fan away. He wrapped his hand around the back of my neck, pulling me forward and into him. My aching breasts were crushed to his chest as he slid his mouth over mine.

I groaned into his kiss, suckling on his tongue as it jabbed into my mouth with a voracious flick. He kissed me deep and hard, smearing my lipstick across both of our mouths. It was a wild, abandoned kiss that promised pleasure. I could feel Zuko’s cock against my stomach, straining through the thin fabric of his worn pants. He was as turned on as I was by our little game.

His hand slid between us as he nibbled on my lips, catching hold of the clamp on my right nipple. I tensed, anticipating a cruel tug, but he gently unclipped it, leaving my nipple throbbing and raw. I breathed out against his mouth, but he just kept kissing me, moving to my other breast. He unclipped that one as well, letting the clamps and chain drop at our feet. His hand gently massaged me, rubbing softly along my aching nipples.

Finally, he released my mouth, leaving me light-headed and aroused. His hands dropped away and I heard him take a ragged breath. I knew that I’d affected him just as much as he’d affected me… _Good._

“Next,” he said after a moment. I licked my lips, feeling a keen ache, not only in my breasts, but between my legs as well. I craved him.

Zuko walked behind me this time, and I felt him slide something wet along my shoulders. I squealed and danced away from it, but he just laughed and followed. I tried to concentrate on what it was. It was slightly slimy, sticky, wet, and soft.

“Euuugh! Is it fruit?”

“What kind of fruit?” he asked, his breath against my ear.

“I don’t know…uh…melon?” I hazarded.

“Wrong,” he said lightly and then brought it around and put it against my lips. I opened my mouth and bit down on it. The distinct flavor of peaches burst across my taste buds.

“But I was right about it being fruit,” I pointed out.

“Not good enough,” he said, walking away. I followed his progress, knowing what was coming. Well, I didn’t actually know what he was going to do, but I knew that I was going to be punished again. “By that logic, you could have said the fan was made of wood and you would have been right. Or the coin made of metal. I want you to be specific.”

“Okay, fine,” I said, pouting.

“Don’t stick out your lip at me.”

“What are you going to do about it?” I countered.

“Give you something to pout about,” Zuko said and then a startling burst of stings scattered along my buttocks. I tensed and cried out, dancing away from the source of the unexpected sensation.

“What…?” I cried out, tugging on my chains, unsure what was happening.

“Did that hurt?”

“N-no…I just…what is that?”

“A flogger. I won’t hurt you with it.”

“Okay…”

This was new. Zuko had obviously been doing some shopping behind my back. I grinned a little to myself. How long had he planned this?

I tried to relax as I stood there, waiting. He didn’t disappoint. The flogger’s soft leather thongs slapped gently against my ass, then down my legs. It was an odd sensation and I knew that he was being gentle with me. Again and again, he brought it against my flesh, focusing on my buttocks before moving on to other parts; my upper back, thighs and then, with a stinging whip that had me squirming, against my buttocks again, hard and fast.

It didn’t hurt, so much as sting, and I found myself enjoying the intensity of it, the way the flogger’s tips danced across my skin. He whipped it across my buttocks one more time and I sagged in place, biting my lip to keep the smile off of my mouth.

Zuko stepped up behind me, wrapping his hand in my hair. He tipped my head back and nuzzled my ear. “You liked that, didn’t you?”

“No,” I lied, sticking out my lip in a pout again.

“I’m going to end up biting that lip,” he huffed as I thrilled at the prospect.  _Mmm…yes…bite me…_ “Next.”

He released me and I sagged in my bonds, my ass stinging from the flogging, indecently turned on by the prospect of being rewarded or punished. I wasn’t sure which one I wanted more, to be very honest.

When Zuko stood in front of me again, I wished that I could see his face. Or at least what he was holding. As it was, I waited with bated breath for him to touch me again.

I jumped as a hot river of fire dripped onto my chest and ran down my breasts in scorching rivulets.

“Nuhh!” I managed, my head falling back as I attempted to twist away from this new sensation.  More dripped onto me, as shocking as before and just as hot. It took me a moment to realize that it wasn’t fire and that it wasn’t burning me. It was hot though. Very, very hot.

It seemed to be drying as it dripped down my torso. When he let some of it drip across my sensitive nipples, I cried out and sagged in the chains, moaning.

“Candlewax!”

“Reward,” Zuko said, walking away while I bit my lip. How would he reward me this time? I couldn’t even imagine… “Tip your head back and open your mouth.”

I did as I was told, surprised at the request. A moment later, cold liquid dribbled into my mouth. I swallowed the water greedily. Zuko poured more into my mouth, letting it drip down my chin and down my chest. It felt good after the hot wax. He poured more over my chest, rubbing the dried wax off, and then rinsing me down.

I shivered in place, as Zuko bent and licked the little droplets of water off of me. He went slowly, mercilessly running his tongue up and down my breasts and stomach, and then sliding it flatly down to my pussy. He lingered there, running his tongue up and down my thighs, teasing us both with what we wanted.

Finally, he seemed satisfied with himself and stood again, walking wordlessly back to his tray of items. I heard his hand root around in what sounded like a bowl. Then he walked over to me.

“This one should be easy,” he said softly, and then ran a freezing cold chunk of ice along my nipples and down my body, then up to my lips.

“Ice,” I said as my tongue darted out, licking at the chunk of ice with a grin.

“Very good. Now spread your legs for me, Suki,” Zuko said, causing me to shiver. And not just from the ice. There was deadly intent in his voice. I spread my feet apart as he walked away. He tossed the ice back into the bowl and came back to stand in front of me.  He knocked my feet apart a little bit more and then leaned in to my ear. “You’re not allowed to cum.”

I shuddered, biting down on my lip so hard I drew blood. Zuko dropped to his knees in front of me, running his hands up and down my thighs. I was still slightly damp from his impromptu shower and tongue bath. I was even wetter between my legs.

I felt his hot breath stir against my pubic hair, then felt his thumbs press against my skin, spreading me open to him. He made a sound in the back of his throat, a pleased, aroused sound that sent an ache throbbing deep within me. His fingers pushed in along my seam, releasing the moisture gathering there. He coated his fingers with it, spreading up around my needy clit. I squirmed in place, wishing that I could watch him. Just the image of Zuko on his knees, eating me out, was enough to bring me to orgasm.

I bit my lip again. I wasn’t allowed to orgasm. Damn him! How was this a  _reward?_

Two of Zuko’s fingers gently entered me, massaging in and out with a leisurely thrust that made me clench around him. My head went back again as I thrusted my hips forward, needing more.

It felt amazing, his strong fingers skimming against me, deep inside of me. I moaned, feet flat on the floor, wishing I could wrap my legs around his neck.

When his tongue touched my clit, I nearly came. As it was, I cried out, riding his fingers as his tongue circled me slowly. He moaned with me, suckling my flesh into his mouth, where he rolled it between his lips and teased it with the tip of his tongue. When he released me, my whole body was buzzing with the need for release.

His tongue teased me again and again, sending pleasure driving through me in waves. His fingers moved faster, plunging deep inside of me. He added a third finger and I eagerly met his thrust with one of my own, straining against the cuffs so hard they cut into me. I rubbed against his face, his devilish tongue bringing me closer and closer to the brink.

“Aaah! Zu– _unngh!_ ” I panted, chest heaving, body tightening. I was going to cum. I couldn’t stop it. Zuko pulled his mouth away, his fingers deep inside of me as my whole body thrilled, spiraling toward orgasm.

And then he withdrew his fingers, leaving me hanging, my impending orgasm whimpering in defeat as it retreated in a backwash of unfulfilled potential.

“NO!” I cried out in frustration, breathing heavily, tears in my eyes. I’d been so close! He couldn’t do that to me! “Zuko, please!”

He’d staggered to his feet, breathing heavily himself. “I’m not through with you yet. What are these?”

His question was abrupt, almost terse and it took me a few moments to comprehend that he was running a pair of metals balls along my skin. They were about three inches or so across, and connected by a string of some sort.

“Uh…balls?” I said, confused.

“I’m so, so glad you got that right. Now open your mouth and suck on them,” he said roughly, surprising me. What was this? I opened my mouth, sucking on both balls one by one. When he pulled the out of my mouth, I grinned.

“I could be sucking on your balls instead, you know.”

“Don’t tempt me,” Zuko said, kissing the tip of my nose. “Now bend over as much as you can.”

Surprised again, I bent over as much as the chain would allow me, thrusting my ass out. Zuko came up behind me, and gently, very gently, inserted first one ball, and then the other into my vagina. My mouth opened, my skin heating up at the sensation.

“Now stand up.”

I obeyed, standing up and feeling the heavy weight of the balls inside of my clenching body. Ohhh…  That felt… Indescribable. I felt so full, with the balls pressing against my sensitive, wet flesh. Every shift of my body shifted the balls as well.

“How does that feel?” Zuko asked into my ear, his hand cupped my pussy, the heel of his palm digging in just enough to tease me. He tugged on the dangling string, just a tiny bit, and my reaction was instantaneous.

“ _Aaaahhh_ ….!”

“I take that to mean that you like it,” he said and nipped my ear. “You’re still not allowed to cum.”

He let me go and I sagged in place, squirming, wriggling my hips as the balls did their best to drive me crazy. Their pressing weight inside of me was too much. Fuck, I loved it.

“What is this?” he asked me when he came back, and then he ran something scratchy up my arms, and then down my breasts. It was flat, whatever it was and possibly some kind of stiff fabric. I couldn’t figure it out though. All I could think about was the way my body was clenching around those fucking balls and how much I wanted him to fuck me.

“I don’t know.”

“You’re not concentrating.”

“I’m concentrating on not coming!”

He chuckled and ran the scratchy material down across my mound. I groaned and rolled my hips forward. “What is this?”

“Wool?”

“ _Lace._ ” I bit my lip and rolled my hips back and forth. Zuko walked away and grabbed something off of his tray of goodies. “Thrust out your ass and stand with your feet firmly on the ground. Don’t squirm.”

I did as he told me to, fighting the urge to shift my weight back and forth. I braced myself, grabbing the chain as I anticipated…something. Anything. I just wanted this to be over. I wanted him to fuck me already.

I wasn’t overly shocked when he smacked my ass with a leather paddle. It felt good; the force of the blow, the sting, the radiating shockwave. I groaned and braced myself for more. He swung again, with a loud smack that rocked me in place and lifted my buttocks. The force of the impact reverberated through me, centering deep inside of me, where the balls were nestled.

He spanked me again and again, until my ass was throbbing and probably a delightful cherry color. Breathing hard, sagging in my chains, my desire spiked to new heights. He was driving me insane, wild with lust, and I was pretty sure he knew it.

When he finally stopped spanking me, we were both breathing hard. I was starting to sweat, tears in my eyes, need driving me. I was starting to lose myself in what was happening, letting go, narrowing down to the juxtaposition of pleasure and pain he was causing me, reveling in it. Delighting in it.

Zuko cupped my face, kissing me softly as I let out a little sob. “Are you okay to go on?”

“Yes.”

“Two more, baby,” he said gently and kissed me again. When his hands dropped away from me, I wanted to cry, but he came back fairly quickly.

This time he ran something soft and fragrant down my neck, across my breasts and then down my stomach. I sighed at the sensation, at the scent that filled me up and soothed me.

“A rose.”

“Yes,” he said simply, and came around to stand behind me. He ran his hands over my sore, heated ass, and then reached around to my front, slipping his fingers down between my legs. “As a reward, you can cum now.”

“Wha–?” I started, but choked off a startled exclamation as Zuko’s fingers rubbed against my clit hard and fast. His other arm came around me, crushing me back against his chest. I could feel his cock against me, digging in. I gasped, tipping my head back against his shoulder as my whole body seemed to clench.

I could feel the balls inside of me, heavy and pressing directly against my g-spot as I clenched and squirmed in place.

Zuko’s fingers worked my clit with a furious pace that left me breathless, gasping, and writhing in his arms. The orgasm I’d been denied earlier came roaring back full force and I welcomed it with open arms.  I came with a strangled shout, shoving my ass back into Zuko, shuddering, my knees weak. My inner muscles clenched around the balls tightly, my orgasm that much more enhanced by them.

I came back to myself with Zuko crooning in my ear, kissing my neck, whispering little words to me that I was too obliterated to comprehend. My lower body felt like it was on fire. Everything was wet and warm and tight.

“Fuck…” I mumbled, little tremors shaking me as Zuko and my bonds held me up. My legs were definitely not up to the job anymore. “It’s too much… I can’t…”

Zuko kissed my neck, sucking on my pulse point, nipping up to my ear. “Just one more, Suki.”

“I can’t…”

“What’s this?”

I hesitated; the only thing I could feel was his cock digging into me and it took me a moment to realize it. “I…your cock?” I said and then burst into a giggle. Zuko huffed out a laugh and rubbed his hips back and forth across my sore ass.

“Very good. You deserve another reward. You’ve been a very good girl tonight.”

“Zuko…”

His arms left me and I sagged in place, sweat dripping down me, tears leaking from my eyes. The balls were still inside of me and I felt their weight with a growing, pleasurable ache. I heard Zuko fiddling with the chains holding my wrists up, and then they went slack a moment later. My knees nearly gave out on me, but Zuko caught me.

Slowly, he lowered my arms down, rubbing my shoulders. I hadn’t realized how sore they were getting from being held up above my head for so long. After a few minutes, he unbuckled the leather cuffs and put them aside. Then he massaged my wrists, lifting my hands and kissing each of my knuckles in turn.

Then he picked me up and carried me across the room. I was too boneless to protest; I doubted I could walk anyway. He set me on the bed and climbed up beside me, then gently pulled the blindfold off.

I blinked in the sudden brightness, glancing around at the bedroom. There were candles glowing everywhere, and on the desk, I saw his tray of goodies. My clothing was scattered across the floor, as well as the underclothes he’d cut off of me, the nipple clamps and the fan. The chain and the cuffs were dangling from a metal hook he’d screwed to a frame on the ceiling.

When had he done that, I wondered as I curled up next to him, one hand on his warm, muscular chest. Zuko stared into my eyes, wiping away my tears and kissing me gently every few seconds.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. That was… Intense,” I said and shifted on the bed to face him.

“You didn’t use the safe words.”

I blew out a breath, thinking back for a moment. “I didn’t need one. It was intense, but not too intense. And I…I hope you’re not done with me…”

A smile lit up his eyes and I felt my heart tugging hard in my chest. “Definitely not, I just thought you’d like a minute or two to relax…”

“I  _am_  relaxed,” I practically purred, reaching down and slipping my fingers into his pants. He moaned as I encircled his cock with a firm grip. “I’ve been tied up and teased, and spanked and flogged and pleasured…but what about you?”

“I  _enjoyed_  tying you up, and teasing, spanking, flogging and pleasuring you,” he said in a tight voice as I worked him with my hand. “I love watching you…”

“I know you do,” I said and kissed him. Zuko made a dark little growling noise in the back of his throat and then rolled over on top of me. My hand slipped off of him and out of his pants. He reached between my legs, thumb skimming across my clit. Then he grasped the string and slowly eased the balls out of me. I bit my lip at the sensation of being emptied. Zuko held them up and then, eyes connecting to mine, he sucked one of them into his mouth.

“Mmm…” he said and then dropped the balls onto the bed.

“Come here,” I said, sitting up and grasping him by the back of the neck. I yanked him down over top of me. His mouth was hot and hard on mine, and I tasted myself on his lips. My hands slipped and slid along his ribs and around his back, my nails digging furrows in his skin. Zuko settled between my thighs and shoved his pants down his hips.

His cock nudged my wet center and I wasted no time in reaching between us to grasp him again.

“Fuck me, Zuko. Please.”

Zuko thrust forward and entered me with a hot, invasive stroke that knocked a stuttering little gasp out of me. I was still incredibly sensitive from my last orgasm. Not to mention those wonderful little metal balls. He filled me to the hilt, sheathed deep inside of me, where I needed him most.

Zuko sat up on his elbows and our gazes connected as he fucked me slow and deep, each thrust sending a lick of heat up my spanked backside. His hair fell across his shoulders and I sank my fingers into it, tugging him back to my mouth.

Pleasure built between us as his hips rolled against mine. I lifted up off of the bed to meet him in the middle, feeling that deep down ache, the need for completion. Zuko trailed his lips over my neck, and across my breasts.

I cried out when he rolled one of my tender nipples into his mouth, the sensation shooting jagged spikes of painful pleasure through me and straight to the place where our bodies were joined.

Zuko released my nipple and trailed his mouth back to mine, his breathing heavy as his hips snapped against mine, taking me harder and harder.

“You’re mine, Suki…” he whispered against my lips and I felt a shiver take hold of me from head to toe. His? Oh yes, I was his. Utterly.

But did he mean it the way I meant it? I couldn’t be sure…

“Yes…” I breathed as his hand cupped my face.

“Say it.”

“I’m yours, Zuko!” I gasped as he pulled back and then thrust into me, hard. I could feel another orgasm chasing me, gaining ground with each commanding thrust of his hips. My head dug into the bed, exposing my throat. Zuko ran his tongue along my pulse point as I drew him down against me, burying my face against his neck as he pounded into me. “Yes…”

Pleasure broke over me like a wave and I twisted up off of the bed, lifting into him as my whole body stiffened. Zuko followed me a moment later, letting out a strangled little groan as he came inside of me with one last rough thrust.

I breathed into his neck as our bodies sank against one another’s. Running kisses up and down his shoulder, I tasted him, lost in a haze of pleasure, completely lost in him. Zuko’s mouth sought mine and he kissed me deeply, shifting so that he was no longer inside of me.

“So…” he said after a few minutes, nuzzling my nose, his big body hot as it covered mine. “Did you like your surprise?”

“Definitely,” I said sleepily. “The flogger  _really_ surprised me. Where did you get it? And all the rest of that stuff?”

Zuko’s face flamed as he sat up on his elbows. “You’re not going to like the answer.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Zuko…”

“Wu-Ten. He went shopping for me.”

I stared at him in shock. Needless to say I didn’t like the idea of Zuko’s valet knowing the intimate details of our sex life. He already knew too much, or acted like he did, and judged me accordingly. Since I’d moved some of my clothes into Zuko’s suite a few weeks ago, Wu-Ten had been exceedingly cold toward me. “And how did you know what to send Wu-Ten shopping for?”

Zuko glanced at me and then away, chewing on his own lip. “Well. Wu-Ten suggested them.”

“I see. So you asked him for advice?”

“Well, he offered it, actually. He said he knew a shop in the city that sold this stuff and that he’d be happy to get me anything I needed. As…uh…as part of his duties as my valet.”

“Oh,” I said as I mulled this new information over.

“Are…are you mad?”

“After that scene? No way. I just…”

“You don’t like Wu-Ten,” he supplied for me.

“Well, no, I don’t… But I just… I want to keep things between us.”

Zuko pulled an amused expression. “Suki, the whole palace knows we’re sleeping together. And most of them know you’ve sort of moved into my suite. Keeping things just between us has never really been an option.”

“I know that. I just… I don’t like the idea of Wu-Ten knowing all of the intimate details of our sex life. Next time, you can send me to this shop, instead of your valet,” I said as he rolled of off me and lay on his back.

“Okay, that’s fair. I’d go myself, but…well…” he trailed off, but I knew how he felt. The Fire Lord simply couldn’t be seen buying manacles and leather paddles to use on his bodyguard/girlfriend in their kinky love dungeon.

I snuggled up against him, caressing his chest with my fingertips.

“Well, no matter how you came by these things, I’m glad you did. That was fun. You really surprised me.”

Zuko turned his head to face me and I saw amusement dancing in his eyes. “That wasn’t my only surprise.”

“Oh? Is it food? Did you get me food? I want food,” I said eagerly as Zuko lifted himself up on one arm. He slung his arm over my waist and gently smacked my ass, which was sore enough to make me bite my lip to keep from crying out.

“Food’s on the way, but it’s not that, you greedy, sexy woman,” he said, kissing my temple. “No…it’s about my birthday. It’s in less than a week. I’m taking you to Ember Island for two weeks.”

I tipped my head back. “Just us? For two whole weeks?”

Zuko’s lips twisted. “Well. Not just us… I invited the whole gang. Aang, Katara, Toph and…”

“Sokka.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s gonna be awkward.”

Zuko shrugged. “They’re our friends. I want them to know how crazy I am for you. Sokka’s a big boy. He can deal with it.”

I smiled mischievously. “And you’re not jealous or afraid I’ll run off with him?”

Zuko stiffened a little, a far-off gleam in his eyes as he looked down at me. Then the look faded and he bent over, nuzzling my mouth with his own. I felt his hand on my ass, rubbing across the hot skin gently.  Then he spanked me with solidly.

“If you try and run off, I’ll just tie you up again. Remember that,” he said and then kissed me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and together we rolled across the bed.

Oh, I would definitely remember that. If he was going to make promises like that, I’d have to try it at the first opportunity.


	6. Perversion!

“Mmmm…that’s perfect, don’t stop…” I moaned as his hands worked down my skin, touching me in all of the right places. Everything was slippery and warm. Zuko huffed out a little chuckle as he straddled me, rubbing little circles that had me biting my lip to keep from crying out. He always knew just how to touch me.

“Hedonist,” he mumbled and leaned forward, kissing the back of my neck.

“Mmm hmmm…” I agreed, closing my eyes and losing myself in the feel of his warm hands on my equally warm skin. “You are so good at that.”

“Putting lotion on your back?” Zuko asked, his voice confused and amused at the same time. I turned to face him, squinting in the hot summer sunlight pouring down over us.

“Touching me, but the lotion is a nice bonus,” I grinned as he sat back up and then slapped my ass. That set off a whole new set of feelings in me, ones I was fairly sure we would explore later. I glanced back at Zuko and caught his gaze.

There was a gleam in his eyes, a heat that scorched. It went straight through my body and straight between my legs with a throb that couldn’t be denied.

“I love touching you,” he said, his hand lingering on my ass for a moment. I had the sudden, devilish thought of him slipping his hand into my bikini bottoms, but dismissed it. The beach, though not crowded, was certainly not private enough for the dirty things my sex-soaked mind had conjured up.

I couldn’t help it though. I always wanted him to be touching me, tasting me, kissing me, spanking me…

How had I found someone who could turn me on so easily? All he had to do was look at me, or touch me in just the right way and I was squirming with desire. The feeling never really went away. Even when we weren’t fucking each others brains out, just being near him was incredible. Long discussions in bed about nothing, quiet silences while he did paperwork and I read, laughter over dinner, the long soaks in the tub where he just held me, the argument we had over something stupid. Even that fight had been good, in its own way. We’d made up easily, soothed the hurt feelings and moved on from it a little stronger than before.

The makeup sex had been incredible too, I can’t even lie about that.

“Maybe later we can head back to the house and you can prove it?” I said with a grin as he he slid away. He laid down on his side on the beach blanket beside me and propped his head up on his hand. His hair pooled on the blanket and across his face.

“You are a temptress,” he said, reaching out a hand and caressing along my spine. I felt shivers goosebump along my skin, despite the blazing sun baking us both in the sand.

“You started it,” I shot at him with a grin and reached out, tugging at his long black hair. “Aren’t you hot with all that hair?”

Zuko grinned and reached up, tugging on a loose strand of my chin-length hair, which the humidity had done its best to frizz out in the two days we’d been on Ember Island. “Cool as a cucumber.”

“Ugh, I’m sweaty just looking at you,” I said, resting my head on my forearms as I studied his handsome face. I glanced at the rest of the beach goers, noticing all of the woman watching him. Maybe they recognized the Fire Lord. Maybe they were looking at the scar on his face or the one on his chest. Or maybe they were just noticing how fucking sexy my boyfriend was, with his long black hair and chiseled body. I felt both indecently smug that he was mine, and a possessiveness that I wasn’t exactly proud of. Still…he was mine. They needed to stop ogling him. “All of these women are staring at you. All that sexy hair, you’re irresistible.”

“Jealous?” he said and I pouted at him.

“Maybe.”

“Fine, if it bothers you, I’ll put it up.” Zuko grinned a little to himself and then sat up, reaching for the bag we’d packed for our trip to the beach. He pulled out a tie and then glanced back at me and proceeded to gather up his hair into a haphazard bun.

I don’t know why, or how, but the sight of Zuko pulling his hair up made the lust I’d felt earlier seem like a paltry thing. I sat up on my elbows, biting my lip as I watched him pull his hair into a bun at the top of his head, the ocean breeze catching a few loose strands.

He turned back to me and lifted his brows. “How’s that?”

“Absolutely not,” I said, flipping over and reaching for the tie. “That’s ten times more sexy than having your hair down.”

“What? No, it’s not!”

“Trust me, it so is!” I said as he grabbed my hand with a laugh. He caught me around the waist and yanked me into his lap. I giggled, straddling him as his mouth found mine. We kissed softly, playfully in the warm sunshine, surrounded by strangers and not caring in the slightest who was watching.

When he pulled back, he smoothed my hair out of my face, cupping it with a grin on his mouth that made little fires light up in my belly. It had been a good two days, alone on Ember Island together, far from the stresses of ruling the Fire Nation. He’d needed the vacation desperately and I was glad he’d taken it.

Of course, I had been less thrilled when he’d brought Wu-Ten along with us, but he’d insisted. Zuko knew how I felt about the man, who was cold to me at best and downright rude at his worst. It was a mutual dislike, but I hadn’t had an argument for why he shouldn’t come along. Someone had to clean out the beach house in preparation for the house full of guests it would host tomorrow, and Zuko hadn’t been eager to spend the first two days of his vacation cleaning.

Still… Wu-Ten’s presence was a blemish on an otherwise perfect vacation with my sexy boyfriend. At least the snooty valet was back at the beach house. He’d probably disapprove of me straddling Zuko’s lap in public. Or touching Zuko. Or just existing. Then again, he had gone shopping for kinky sex toys for Zuko. Who knew what he would disapprove of? I found the man inscrutable, which added to my dislike.

I felt Zuko’s stomach rumble against mine and pulled back with a grin. It had been a long time since lunch. “Wanna head back?”

He nodded and together we gathered up our things and headed back to the Fire Lord’s private beach house. The sprawling home grumped at us on the rocky hillside as we climbed the steps, hand in hand. I saw Wu-Ten glaring at me from a window for a moment, but then he disappeared.

We changed and went into the village for dinner. The restaurant was tiny, filled with candlelight and good food and lots of wine. Afterward, as the sun sank into the west, Zuko and I walked along the now-deserted beach. We stopped, staring at the waves. He wrapped his arms around me and drew me back into his chest.

“This was a perfect day,” Zuko said into my ear, rubbing my arms.

“It was,” I agreed and turned in his arms. “I think you needed this vacation. We’ve only been here two days and you’re already relaxed.”

“I blame you. Everything in my life has been better since being with you,” he said softly, his nose brushing mine.

“You’re just saying that because of all of the mind-blowing sex,” I joked, but there was a flicker in Zuko’s eyes, as if what I’d said bothered him. It was lost a moment later though, as he kissed the tip of my nose.

“No, it’s you, Suki. Just you. I’m glad we came two days early so we could have some alone time before the others come. But now they’re coming tomorrow and I don’t feel like we’ve had enough time to ourselves.”

“Well, when they get here we can tell them to leave,” I said cheekily, because I knew what he meant. With the rest of the gang here, we’d have to reign the affection back a little. And have quieter sex…which was not something I was particularly good at. I was supremely thankful that the palace walls were thick, or the whole damned Fire Nation would know what a screamer I was.

I was also thankful that Wu-Ten was staying in a separate servant’s cottage on the grounds instead of in the beach house with us. I was already pretty sure he’d heard us fucking before, but the walls in the beach house were paper thin and he would have heard us last night if he’d been anywhere in the house.

“Might be considered rude,” he pointed out and I shrugged.

“Well then, I guess we just have tonight to ourselves,” I said coyly, stroking the bit of his chest peaking out of his loose vest. “I know your birthday until next week, but maybe tonight we can celebrate in our  own way. Especially since we’ll have to play nice while the others are here.”

Zuko’s hands tightened on my waist and I could feel the desire racing through him, as warm as the fire lurking in his veins.  He kissed me in answer, bringing me against him for what felt like hours. I clung to him, as the sun sank and the night covered us in glittering stars. When we pulled away, we were both panting, our hearts racing with excitement.

He took my hand and together we walked back to the beach house. He pulled me into our bedroom, lit the candles with a wave of his hand, and pinned me to the door as it closed behind us. I wrapped my arms around him, my tongue rolling against his.

I wanted to crawl beneath his skin, taste him, touch him, give myself over to him in every way I possibly could. Just kissing him excited me.

Zuko’s mouth trailed along my neck, nipping lightly and sending hot little thrills down my skin. His hands gripped my upper arms, thumbs brushing along my skin. I loved it when he did that. I closed my eyes, reveling in the warmth of his body, the gentle nip of his teeth and the soft push of his lips along my neck. I dug my hands into his hips, holding him to me as much as he was holding me.

“What do you want me to do to you?” he asked, his voice a soft rumble in the candlelit darkness of the bedroom.

I smiled into his hair, pushing my cheek against his. “Whatever you want. I’m yours. I want you to do whatever you want to me, Zuko.”

He pulled back, staring into my eyes. His hands reached up, tenderly cupping my face. “Are you sure?”

I bit down on the tip of his thumb playfully and then released him. “Yes. I’ll go where you lead.”

Zuko’s whole body shuddered a little and then he smiled, one of those soft, warm smiles that melted me right to the core. I couldn’t handle it when he looked at me like that. I’d never seen that smile directed anyone else and it did things to me.

He lowered his mouth to mine, kissing me with a tender heat. His lips were soft and dry against mine, questing. I lifted up on tiptoe to deepen the kiss, but he pulled back, breathing out shakily against my lips.

Then lowered his hands, running them along my neck and down to my breasts. He ran the backs of his fingers across my cleavage, gently raising goosebumps. He bit down on his lower lip, the tiniest nibble.  He looked up again, caught my gaze and held it for a long moment as I stood there before him, waiting, yearning for… I wasn’t sure. I just wanted _him_ and whatever he was going to do to me, and I could tell that whatever he was planning, I was going to love it.

He kissed me again then, with more heat, his hands molding my breasts, lifting them. I kissed him back, hard, trying to tell him through the heat of it that I was _his_. I moaned when his thumbs brushed my nipples, teasing them erect through the thin material of my red halter top.

His tongue brushed mine and then he pulled back, nuzzling my nose with his own.

“I’m going to fuck you until you scream.”

_Holy shit!_

I barely had time to register what he was saying before he grasped the front of my halter top and ripped it straight down the middle. I gasped as my bare breasts spilled out of the torn shirt. Zuko made a soft growl and ripped it off of my arms. It hit the floor at our feet and I didn’t miss it in the slightest.

He wrapped his arms around my torso and pulled me up against him, bending his head and sucking one of my nipples into his mouth. I gasped again, the need in me igniting like a forest fire. I reached up, grasping his head as he worked my nipple between his teeth, tugging at it with a growing fervor that infected me too.

I tried to reach for the ties on his loose vest, but he caught my wrists, letting go of my nipple with a soft popping sound. He was panting a little as he forced my arms behind my back and held them there.

“No,” was all he said, in a commanding voice that send shivers of fear and delight down me. “You like the way I touch you, huh?”

“Yes,” I said as he ran his lips against my neck. He tightened his hands on my wrists, bending my arms into the small of my back and pulling me against his length. “I love it.”

“Then I’ll touch you tonight, all over. Every inch. But you can’t touch me.”

A whimper left me and I tried to move away from him in protest, but he held me tightly. I wanted to touch him as much as I wanted him to touch me. That was unfair. My lower lip jutted out unthinkingly and he immediately sucked it into his mouth. His teeth clamped down on it and he pulled on it as I let out a shivery gasp at the sensation.

“Don’t pout,” he said seriously as he let go, though I could see the gleam of amusement in his eyes. He gently turned me around, still holding my hands behind my back. “Clasp your arms and don’t let go until I say so.”

His hands left me and I immediately obeyed, grasping my wrists behind my back as Zuko’s hands slid down my hips. He slipped his hands down the front of my skirt, lifting it up around my hips. He gently touched the tops of my thighs, skimming the front of my panties for one long caress that had me squirming in place. When he pushed his hands down the front of my panties, I nearly sighed in relief to feel his fingers against me. He cupped my pussy with one hand, bringing my hip back into him.

“This is mine tonight.”

I shuddered as he bit down on my earlobe and then opened me to him. I was wet already, and his fingers glided easily between my folds. I bit down on my lip, fingernails digging into my wrists as Zuko rubbed me from clit to asshole. He was toying with me though, deliberately flirting with my throbbing, distended clit but never committing to it. It drove me _crazy._

When the tips of his fingers pushed inside of me, I was practically vibrating with need. My hips drove back and forth, anxious for something deeper, to ease the ache deep in my womb.

He pulled back though with a soft laugh against my ear.

Oh, he was such a teasing bastard…

“Do you want it?” he mumbled as his fingers spread me.

“Y-yes…” I stuttered, twitching in place, eager for more. I wanted it, needed it.

“Take off your clothes and then put your arms behind your back again.”

Zuko pulled his hand out of my panties and stepped away, leaving me shuddering from the sudden loss of his heat against my back. I dropped my arms, my hands shaking as I undid the clasp on my skirt and pulled it down my hips. My panties followed and I shoved them down, a nervous, excited flutter in my stomach.

That done, I clasped my arms behind my back again, my breasts thrusting out with eagerness. I didn’t dare turn around—he hadn’t said I was allowed—but I could see him out of the corner of my eyes as he moved around the room. He got a bag out of the wardrobe and set it on the bed, then riffled through it. He drew something out of it with a clinking sound. Next he pulled out a couple of other items, which I couldn’t quite make out from my position. I wanted to turn my head, but I didn’t.

He left the room without speaking to me, going into the bathing room. The water ran and I heard him getting into cabinets. What was he doing?

I didn’t have to wait very long. He came back into the room and set a bowl on the bedside table, along with a towel. He moved the bag off of the bed and set the items he’d pulled out aside too. Then he took up the clinking object and turned toward me for the first time in five minutes.

He came and walked around me, almost lazily. I glanced down and saw that he had a pair of leather manacles in his hands, the same ones he’d tied me up with last week. A wash of desire crested over me as I remembered that night and the game we’d played.

Zuko’s gaze ran down my body as he circled me like a shark. I was prey right now and I knew it. Another shiver caught hold of me, a whole-body wave that hardened my nipples to aching points. I wanted him to touch me again, but even his gaze was too much.

“Do you have any idea how fucking beautiful you are?”His voice was awed and heated. I met his gaze, my lips open, a flush splotching my skin. Despite that, I felt beautiful. I felt powerful under the intensity of his gaze. I could see the bulge of his cock through his pants. I had done that, and I hadn’t even touched him. “All of the men on the beach were staring at you. They wanted you.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that. I hadn’t noticed anyone staring at me. Mostly I’d noticed the women staring at _him._ We were definitely a pair, both of us jealous and territorial. I bit down on a grin.

He came around to stand behind me again and I felt his warm breath ghosting against the backs of my shoulders, making me bite down on my lower lip again.

He grasped my wrists then, putting on each cuff with slow, deliberate motions, checking to see if they were too tight, but they weren’t. The chain connecting them dangled against my bare buttocks with a sensual tickle. I squirmed in place, shifting backward to touch him.

Zuko’s hand immediately wrapped around my neck, trapping me in place against his chest. He squeezed lightly, letting me know he could make it hurt if he wanted. His hand turned gentle though, his thumb caressing me as he put his other arm around my waist, fingers digging into my belly. He breathed in against my ear and then flicked his tongue against my earlobe.

“You’re mine. I want you to remember that tomorrow.”

Tomorrow? What was tomorrow? I couldn’t think past the lust wreathing my brain. Zuko’s hand slid up to my mouth, his fingers teasing my lips. I opened my mouth and sucked his fingers inside, my tongue slipping and sliding all over his middle finger as I sucked it in and out.

He pulled his finger out of my mouth and trailed it back down to my breasts. He flicked each of my nipples in turn and then cupped my breasts in each of his hands. I tipped my head back, resting it on his shoulder as he teased my nipples with his fingers, pinching them until I squirmed again.

“Zuko…”

The sound of my voice seemed to break him. He let out a rough growl and turned me in his arms. He kissed me, too briefly, and then caught hold of my hair and dragged me over to the bed.

It surprised me, I won’t lie. I cried out, stumbling a little. He wasn’t hurting me, but he’d never done that before. I liked it.

More than liked it.

He pushed me down in a sitting position on the edge of the bed and then stood in front of me. I looked up at him, tugging at the cuffs keeping me from reaching out and touching him like I wanted. I knew he could see the burn in my gaze though, the rebellion in my shoulders.

His head tilted back a little, the tip of his tongue sliding along his top lip as he slowly undid his vest and tossed it down on the wooden floor. I wanted to run my tongue all over his chest, dig my teeth into the muscle and bone. I didn’t move an inch.

Judging from the bulge in his pants, I expected him to take off his pants, but he seemed to have other ideas as he dropped down to the floor in front of me. He lowered his mouth to my knee, kissing it softly and then running his tongue up and down my thigh. He moved to the other leg as I squirmed in place on the bed, pushing my thighs together.

He ran his tongue all over my thighs, nibbling to elicit little gasps out of me. My breathing quickened as he put his hands between my knees and then slowly pushed my legs open. I watched in utter fascination as he ran his hands up the insides of my thighs now, stroking me, teasing me.

He ran his tongue up my thighs next, licking at the moisture that had collected there. I was so wet and he’d barely done anything to me. When he bit down on my inner thigh, I cried out and strained to break the bonds holding my arms behind my back. He looked up at me, a feral look in his topaz eyes.

Then he grabbed me and dragged me forward so that my ass hung off the edge of the bed. I fell back, trapping my arms behind me as he spread my legs wide.

And then he buried his face in my pussy like a starving man at a banquet.

His tongue teased my clit, strafing against it while I squirmed and panted and whimpered. I couldn’t help it. It felt so fucking good after his merciless teasing. I wanted to put my hand in his hair while I rode his tongue, but my arms were strapped.

I was his toy, his to play with.

My first orgasm surprised me, bowling me over like an avalanche. I cried out, lifting my head off of the bed, stomach muscles clenching as it shocked through my system. I lifted my pelvis into the licking pressure of his mouth and then tried to retreat.

Zuko didn’t stop though. He pinned my hips down with one hand, the other spreading my pussy open to him. My head dropped back to the bed as I stared up at the ceiling, a wordless, breathless series of gasps leaving me as he dragged his tongue up and down my slit. When he flicked it inside of me, it was all I could do not to cum again. The slippery heat of his tongue set off a deep spasm in me and I clenched, my hips twitching beneath his pinioning hand, trying to fuck his tongue.

When he pulled out of me, I heard him panting. He tugged me forward again, and I slipped further off the edge of the bed. The only thing keeping me from falling was the leg he’d hooked over his broad shoulder.

He flicked my clit again and I cried out from the sensation. He made a lusty growl that had my inner walls clenching again. Gently, he pulled my clit into the heat of his mouth, suckling on it, rolling it in his lips until I was a writhing mass of nerves. My hips couldn’t be stopped; I rose and fell with each deep pull of his mouth, and the little flicks of his tongue against the engorged organ. All of my body, the whole fucking universe, ended and began in my clit and he was determined to worship or destroy it. I wasn’t sure which.

I came again, hard, teeth clenching and a strangled shout leaving me as it shuddered through my womb. I was sweating now, dripping. My arms were aching. My cunt was on fire.

Zuko lifted his head, breathing hard himself, roses blooming in his cheeks from his efforts. He stood with the fluid motion of a fighter, leaving me to catch myself or fall to the floor at his feet. My feet hit the floor and scooted myself back onto the bed, though it wasn’t easy because of my trapped arms.

Zuko looked down at me for a moment, not quite composed.

“I’m not through with you.”

“Fuck me, please…” I begged him shamelessly, but I knew he had other plans. “I need you inside me.”

His fingers ran along my thighs as he bent over me. He put one knee on the bed beside me, the other between my legs. His hand ran up my thighs, stroking, caressing me. Then he slipped his fingers inside of me, curling them to press against my g-spot. I cried out and lifted up off of the bed, but he put his other hand on my throat, pushing me back down.

“Is this where you need me, Suki?”

I swallowed, aware that, again, he wasn’t cutting off my air, just holding me down. “Yes!”

“You want me to fuck you?”

“Yes!”

“Beg me.”

_Holy shit…_

“Please! Zuko, please! Please fuck me. I need your cock.” My whole body flushed, the words pouring out of me in a desperate, filthy tumble.

“Not until you cum for me again.”

I let out a whimpering sound, meeting his gaze as my mouth opened. I couldn’t cum again. I _couldn’t._ He had other ideas about my capabilities though. His fingers worked in and out of me, first one, then two, then three until I was a woman on fire, riding his thrusting fingers with a desperate, animal desire that made my hips lift into his hand over and over again. I squirmed, thighs closing on his hand, but still he took me, his fingers pressing into my throat.

When his thumb pressed roughly against my clit, flattening it, I cried out, digging my head back into the bed, my whole body arching. Zuko pressed against my g-spot again, spreading fire through my body. Everything clenched, my thighs tightening on his leg. I tried to squirm away, but he had me, I was his, I was his…oh _spirits_ , I was his…

The scream that erupted out of me was hoarse and shrill at the same time, encompassing everything I was feeling, all of it, the pleasure, the pain, the helplessness, the desire to please him. I came with a hot, wet clench, a gushing spurt of warm liquid and a full-body spasm that tightened me around his fingers like a vice.

Zuko pulled away from me then and without his pinning weight, my wobbly legs refused to support me. I slid off of the bed and landed in a shaking heap on the floor. My hands were shaking, tingling from having laid on them for so long. I was gasping for breath as my legs quivered, utterly useless beneath me.

My pussy was on fire, my inner muscles still clenching and unclenching in the aftermath of an orgasm that I could only call devastating. I was vaguely aware of how wet I was. It coated my thighs, trickling down. I could see droplets of liquid on the floor beneath me as I hung my head. What had I done?

Zuko’s feet came into view and he combed his hands through my hair gently, reassuringly. I tilted my head back, meeting his hot gaze. The front of his pants were wet. Comprehension hit my sex-soaked mind.

“Did I…?”

“Yes.” Zuko’s little smile was simmering, almost indecently proud. I blinked in shock. Who knew that I was a squirter? I shifted in place on the floor, aware of how liquid my whole body felt.

“Holy crap.”

Zuko bent down, and kissed my forehead gently. “Are you okay to go on?”

I took stock of my body for a moment. My legs were pretty rubbery right now, but I was otherwise fine, if not a little thirsty. I nodded. “I’m okay. I could use some water though.”

“Alright, baby,” he said warmly, much more the Zuko I knew than the Dom who finger-fucked me until I squirted. Except they were the same man. The same wonderful, maddening, gorgeous, sexy, frustrating man.

And I was so desperately in love with him that my heart actually ached with the power of it. Well, maybe that was just the extra-strength, bone-deep, earth-shattering, squirting orgasm he’d just given me. I doubted it though. I loved him so much that I was just lost in the feeling, in him. I knew he wouldn’t let me get too lost though. He always brought me back to reality when I needed it.

I watched him walk away and get a glass of water off of the table. He came back and helped me to sit up on my knees. Then he tipped the glass to my lips and I took a long, deep drink of the cool water. He pulled away and I swallowed, licking the sweat off of my upper lip.

He walked back to the table and put the glass down and as I watched, he pulled off his wet pants. I flushed with embarrassment. I still couldn’t believe I’d done that.

When he turned around, he saw me watching him and bit down on his lip. His cock was hard, flushed red, purple at the engorged tip. While I watched, he grasped it, giving it a few cursory strokes as he came back to stand in front of me.

He stepped close as I curled my fingers on my forearms. I knew by the gleam in his eyes that he wasn’t going to untie me. I licked my lips, sitting back on my heels.

“Is that for me?”

A ghost of a smile crossed his lips, but he locked it down the next moment, his hand encircling his cock at the base. “Open your mouth.”

I did as I was told, opening my mouth to him as my pulse quickened. He stepped closer and pushed the tip of his cock against my lips. My tongue darted out, swirling against his soft skin. He pushed forward a little bit more and I gently sucked on the tip.

“Show me your tongue,” he whispered, withdrawing. I put out my tongue and he slid his cock against my tongue sideways a few times and then he tapped it against the flat of my tongue with a little thump. He put his hand on the back of my head and guided himself into my mouth.

He thrust slowly into my mouth in shallow little movements, while I sucked at him as gently as I could. I closed my eyes, my head bobbing forward to meet his thrusts as I took him deeper and deeper.

“Look at me when I fuck your mouth,” Zuko said, an edge in his voice that made my heart sing. My eyes snapped open, flicking upward to meet his gaze. I didn’t want to look anywhere else. He was my world and I wanted nothing more than to please him.

He thrust his cock slowly into my mouth as I shaped him with my lips. I curled my tongue around the underside of his cock, sucking lightly. I didn’t take my eyes off of him, watching the concentration in his gaze as he grasped his cock and slipped and slid it in and out of my mouth.

He let out a little moan and then thrust into the back of my throat. His hand tightened in my hair and he thrust again, deeper this time. And again, until my nose was buried in the hair on his lower belly. I choked, tears forming in my eyes.

He pulled back the next moment, leaving me panting, saliva stringing from my lips to his cock. I licked it away and looked up at him, running my tongue up the underside of him. He shoved his cock back into my mouth with a hard thrust, grasping my hair with both hands and rocking forward, thrusting fast and rough into my mouth. I sucked at him, as hard as I could, and was rewarded with a low growl from him.

“I need you,” he snarled, pulling out of my mouth again. I was panting again, drool slicking down my chin and dribbling on my breasts. I licked my lips and looked up at him, feeling that ache between my legs. I still wanted him, needed him and he knew it. “Come here.”

He helped me to my wobbly legs and turned me around to face the bed. He pushed me face down against the bed without ceremony. I smiled into the bed covers, turning my face to the side as he spread my legs apart, positioned his cock against my opening and then thrust into me, deep and hard.

I cried out from the force of it, as he shoved my hips against the edge of the bed. He wrapped one hand around my bound wrists and the other spread on my lower back.

He fucked me deep and hard, taking me in long strokes that knocked gasp after gasp out of me until I was hoarse and desperate. My legs still didn’t seem to want to hold me up and I pushed my face against the bed, lost in the friction, the warmth, the wet.

Zuko smacked my ass with a stinging swat and it knocked a breathless laugh out of me. He did it again and I found myself pushing my hips back against his, meeting him thrust for thrust. The wet sound of sex filled the air, the slap of skin on skin as he pounded into me.

When his hand dug beneath my bouncing hips and found my clit, it was too damned much. I came again, clenching around his thick, heavy length so hard that he cried out and slammed into me balls deep, quivering there. My slick, pillowy depths squeezed him hard, pulling him deeper.

He pulled out of me with a curse, leaving me dripping and shaking again. For my part, all I could do was lay there, breathing hard into the bed covers, my pussy pulsating in time to my racing heartbeat.

“Good girl,” Zuko said in a ragged, thick voice. He reached for the buckles on my left cuff, undoing it swiftly. I lost no time in unlacing my arms from behind my back. My muscles were aching from the position. I tried to pick myself up off of the bed, but all of the strength seemed to have run out of me.

Zuko took pity on me, rolling me over onto my back. Then he scooped me up, and gently set me down in the middle of the bed. He settled down next to me, clearly trying to catch his breath too. II felt his cock against my hip. He was still hard, slick with my juices.

“You didn’t cum?”

“I edged,” he said, and kissed me deeply. I wrapped my sore arms around his neck, as he ran his hands along my body, touching me in every place that ached. His fingers slipped between my legs again and I   moaned into his mouth, my legs falling open for him. He lazily glided his hand down my sex, pushing his fingers inside of me and then retreating. When he moved down further, his finger sliding inside of my anus, I bit down on his lip.

He didn’t withdraw, gently easing his middle finger into me. Everything was slick and wet and he slid in easily as I relaxed into his kiss. His tongue swept into my mouth and I chased it eagerly. My hand slid down his torso with a clink of the chain that was still cuffed to my right wrist. I grasped his cock and he broke the kiss.

“No…” he said, grabbing my hand. He withdrew from between my legs and sat up on his knees. He took hold of the dangling cuff and use it to lift my arms over my head. My pulse jumped again, and I watched as he looped the chain around a bar on the bed frame. The he took my other wrist and put the cuff back on. I was tied to the bed now, my arms over my head. I grasped the chain, testing out my range of motion. It wasn’t much.

I was at his mercy again. Just the way he wanted it.

Zuko worked his way down my body, licking me, tasting me, kissing me. I grinned, tipping my head back against the covers as he covered my nipples in soft kisses. Then he licked down the center of my body I shuddered, anticipating the pleasure-pain of his mouth on my pussy. I couldn’t take more stimulation.

Or so I thought.

Zuko flirted with my clit, probing it lightly, eliciting a gasp from me, my breasts thrusting into the air as my whole body arched off of the bed. He did it again and again, until I got my foot up, put it on his shoulder and kicked him away from my cunt.

He sat back, caught my foot and laughed. The motherfucker _laughed_ at me!

“Sensitive?”he asked as I glared at him. He kissed the bottom of my foot and then sucked my toes into his mouth. The sensation sent a runnel of want straight down between my legs, where everything was throbbing and pulsated. I moaned and jerked in my restraints.

“You’re just trying to torture me,” I said as he let go of my big toe. His smile was enough to bring on another orgasm.

“Now what makes you think that?” he shot at me, and then pushed my legs apart again. He leaned over me, fitting himself between my thighs and along my body. I lifted my head, trying to kiss him, but he was too far away. He smoothed my hair back from my face, rubbing his thumb along my cheekbone. “Do you know what you do to me?”

I bit down on my lower lip. “Nothing you don’t want me to.”

His eyebrow quirked, a dark gleam in his eyes. “Ditto.”

I smiled at him and he kissed me, long and deep, his cock sliding against my wet folds. I wanted him to join us again. I wanted him to take me, to fuck me into the bed until I screamed. There was a fire in my spine, a thirst that couldn’t be quenched.

He had other ideas though.

Zuko pulled away and nuzzled my nose. “Turn over and get on your knees.”

A shiver went through me as he lifted away from me. I obeyed though, rolling over onto my stomach and then getting to my knees. The chain twisted and I grabbed hold of the bed frame to keep from toppling over. I glanced over my shoulder as Zuko climbed off of the bed and grabbed one of the items he’d taken out of his mystery bag. He came back to the bed with it in his hand, climbing in behind me.

“What are you doing?” I asked, though the moment I saw the little pot in his hands I knew. Oh my sweet spirits, I _knew._

“I’m going to fuck you in the ass, Suki,” he said so calmly, so matter-of-factually that I couldn’t help the excited giggle that left me. He slapped my ass. “And why are you laughing?”

I wriggled my cherry-red ass at him, showing my obvious excitement. “No reason.”

“Little minx.”

“Mmm _hmmm_ …” I said as he unscrewed the lid on the jar of lube. We’d never done anal before, though we’d flirted with the idea, mostly sticking to his fingers or tongue inside of me. And on more than one occasion, mine inside of him. I was excited and nervous.

I watched as Zuko lubed himself up, and then felt him spreading a lot of it between my cheeks. He was so considerate.

“We’ll start slow,” he said softly, shoving the pot aside and grasping my hip. I felt his finger slip into my asshole again, much easier this time. He slid in to the second knuckle and I moaned a little at the foreign sensation. “Tell me if it hurts. Use the safe words.”

“Okay.”

Zuko bent over me, kissing the backs of my shoulders, my lower back, as his finger worked in and out of my tight hole. I moaned as he added another, stretching me open as I relaxed into the sensation of being penetrated. His fingers moved faster and deeper as I twitched my hips into his hand.

He seemed patient, waiting for me to be ready for him. I realized that he was waiting for me to tell him and turned to look at him.

“Zuko, fuck my ass,” I moaned as his fingers sank in deep, pressing into me with a heavy weight. He withdrew his fingers, nodding as he grasped his slippery cock. He dipped into the lube and rubbed more of it on the tip of his cock, then on me.

“Are you ready?”

I nodded and he pushed his cock against the seam of my anus. My mouth opened. He was so fucking big! I stretched around him as he pushed just the head of his cock into me. I went very still, afraid to move, afraid of the pain that was waiting, lurking, ready to bite down on me.

Zuko breathed out and put his hand on my lower back again, holding me in place. “Fuck, you’re so tight. Does it hurt?”

“No…just… _ahhhh_ ….” I let out a shivery gasp as he pulled back and then gently glided into me again, going deeper than before. I gripped the head board, biting down on my lip so hard it started to bleed. I felt so full, stretched around him and as tight as a drum.

Zuko slowly rocked against me, fucking my ass in shallow thrusts. He moaned, his hips twitching, as if he were holding back. I knew he wanted to move faster, but he was afraid of hurting me. I arched my back and he cursed again, going deeper than before.

When he smacked my ass again, all I could do was laugh. I tossed my hair over my shoulder, and looked back at him with a salacious grin on my face. “Harder.”

“Louder,” he admonished me, rocking his hips against me a little faster.

“HARDER!”

He slapped my ass harder and I gritted my teeth, ramming back against him, sheathing his whole cock.   Zuko caught me and held me there against him, rocking me slowly back and forth. I hung my head, a wordless cry of pleasure leaving me.

“Holy _shit._..”

Zuko withdrew and then thrust balls deep into me, hard and fast. His hand caught my hair, dragging my head back, making me arch my back as he fucked my ass. I loved it.

His pace quickened, his breathing picking up. I knew he was close and I strove to make him cum like he’d done to me, pushing myself back against him a loud groan. I whimpered encouragements, filthy words that undid him just as much as the tight squeeze of my body.

Zuko made a choked noise and slammed into me, hard, knocking the breath out of me with a shockwave that radiated. I felt him cum with a hot spurt and a spasm. A low moan left him as his hips pulsated against my ass.

After a few moments he let out another breath, all of the tension running out of his body. He let go of my hair and then slowly pulled out of me. I let out a breath of my own, hanging my head again. I felt exhausted all of a sudden.

And my ass kind of hurt. In a good way.

Zuko wiped at the sweat pouring down his face. I was sweaty too. It felt like I’d run a marathon, or fought a whole room full of assassins.

“Zuko?” I said, calling him back to the present as I tugged on the chains. He started and crawled across the bed, unbuckling first one cuff, then the other. Unchained, I flopped bonelessly onto my stomach and let out a sigh of utter contentment.

“Are you okay? Did I hurt you?” he asked in a worried voice as I laid there like a slug.

“I’m so good right now. I don’t think I can move, but I’m good,” I mumbled as he chuckled and slapped my ass again. I let out a little moan, feeling messy and sweaty.

“Let me clean you up,” he said, reaching for the items he’d put on the bedside table. I closed my eyes, listening to him moving around.

“Mmm…” I said as he dipped the towel in the bowl of water he’d gotten from the bathroom. He ran it between my legs, cleaning off the lube and other liquids. I was still too sensitive though, and twitched at the feel of the rough towel against me. He was gentle though, kissing me every time I hissed in a breath. I rested my head on my crossed arms, turning my head to look at him, a sleepy, satisfied smile on my mouth. “That was perverted.”

Zuko’s gaze flicked to me, a blush forming in his cheeks. I found it unbearably cute. He fucks me in the ass and then blushes about it. Was it any wonder I was madly in love with him?

“You didn’t like it?”

My grin was wide and obscenely delighted. “On the contrary…I loved it.”

Zuko bent down, landing a kiss on the corner of my mouth. “Me too.”

“You made me scream.”

“Several times. We definitely can’t do that when the others are here,” he said warmly and then sat back. “I don’t know about you, but I think I need a shower.”

We did smell a little…ripe. The scents of sweat, lube and sex were redolent in the air. I grinned and nodded as he got off of the bed and brought me with him. My legs were definitely still wobbly and my ass felt… Well, I was going to be sore for a couple of days, to put it mildly.

Zuko ran water in the bathtub, while I peed. Steam from the hot water quickly filled the room and I grinned to myself. You never ran out of hot water when you dated a firebender. When the tub was filled, he climbed in first and settled back, then held my hand as I climbed in with him.

I sat down between his legs in the water, steam rising around us like little ghosts. I rested my back against his chest, my head on his shoulder, as his arms went around me and held me there. The warm water was a balm after the strenuous fucking we’d done.

I relaxed into him, into the warmth of the water, a sated smile on my lips as my hair curled in the steamy air.

Zuko kissed my temple, rubbing my stomach. “Are you nervous?”

“About what?” I asked thickly, opening my eyes. I hadn’t realized I’d closed them. I was sleepier than I thought.

“Aang and the others are coming tomorrow,” he reminded me and I nodded.

“Why would I be nervous?”

“Sokka is your ex-boyfriend,” he said, tucking his face against my neck. I smiled a little.

“Sounds like I’m not the nervous one,” I said, drawing my leg up as I rubbed at his knees beneath the hot water. “I don’t mind seeing Sokka, Zuko. I don’t really feel anything for him anymore. We’re friends. And I’m sure he’s going to be okay with the two of us dating.”

“Good.” He went quiet for a long moment and then kissed my shoulder. “You know, this isn’t just sex to me, right? I mean, I like having sex with you. I like what we do, the um…like tonight. And last night, when we just made love and held each other. But that’s not why… It’s… I’m not saying this right.”

My heart leaped, banishing the last of my sleepiness with an injection of adrenaline. I put my hands over his and half-turned to face him with a slosh of water. “It’s not just sex to me either.”

Zuko studied my face in the steamy air, a little smile on his lips. “Suki, I–”

A knock on the door interrupted him, making us both turn toward the door. I groaned, knowing without a doubt who was on the other side of the door. He was the only servant we’d brought along, after all.

“Sire?”

Zuko huffed out an annoyed sigh, glaring at the door. “What is it, Wu-Ten?”

“Do you need anything?”

“No, we’re fine! Thank you,” Zuko called. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Are you sure there’s nothing you need? I could make some–”

“No thank you! Good night!” Zuko said sharply. Wu-Ten hesitated on the other side of the door for a few moments.

“Fine, sir. See you in the morning,” he said in a cold voice and then we heard his footsteps retreat. I shifted uncomfortably in the tub, feeling like someone had walked in on me naked, even though they hadn’t. I had the nasty feeling like Wu-Ten had been standing on the other side of the door listening to us talking. What else had he heard? We hadn’t been quiet.

Zuko tightened his arms around me and drew me back against him in the water. He didn’t say anything. Whatever he’d been about to tell me seemed to have jumped back down his throat. I bit down on my lip and glared at the door, cursing Wu-Ten’s interruption.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that Zuko’s valet had done it on purpose.


	7. Confession!

I woke up in the morning to Zuko’s head between my thighs. Sleepily, I weaved my hands through his hair, drifting on a sea of pleasure as his tongue gently teased me. He seemed in no hurry, his only goal to pleasure me. I tilted my hips, riding the soft slide of his tongue against my clit. He was being gentle with me though, after last night’s roughness. I gasped his name, pushing the covers back to watch him. He glanced up at me with a sideways smirk and slowly flicked his tongue in and out of my hot, wet channel, enjoying my sleepy reaction and the way my hips rose up off of the bed.

Slowly, he drove me into a breathy little orgasm that woke me up and made my whole body feel worshiped.

As I came down, Zuko crawled his way up my body, settling between my legs. I drew my thighs up around his hips, holding him to me. I pushed his hair back behind his ears, feeling his cock rubbing against me, the weight and girth of it exciting me.

We stared at each other, the wild night before between us like a sex-drenched ghost. I dragged him down to my mouth, kissing the taste of my body from his lips. At the same time, I reached between our bodies, guiding him inside of me.

Zuko groaned as he sank his weight down on top of me, his hips rolling against mine with a gentle thrust. I buried my face against his warm neck, raking my fingers up and down his spine as he made gentle, unhurried love to me.

He nibbled on my neck, sending thrills through my skin, until I was squirming under him. I wrapped my legs around his hips, tilting my hips as I took every inch of him into my hot, slick depths. When Zuko pulled back, kissing me with wet, commanding urgency, I cupped his face. My tongue rolled against his, a moan leaving the both of us as our bodies slid together again and again.

Zuko groaned and caught my hands, entwining our fingers and pressing my hands to the bed on either side of my head. I arched my back, my neck as he took me a little harder, a little faster.

He trailed his mouth up and down my neck, marking me again and again as I smiled, lost in the hedonistic warmth of his hard body against mine, the warm sunshine streaming into the windows, and the sound of the ocean crashing to the shore.

When Zuko pulled back and rolled us over, I bit down on my lip, readjusting my position to ride him in long, smooth strokes. Zuko seemed perfectly content to watch me fuck him, his hands on my hips, an indolent smile on his lips.

I didn’t mind. After last night, he’d certainly earned a rest.

I was already so close, my nails digging into his chest as I worked my hips back and forth in a fast, hard rhythm. The bed rocked beneath us with a loud creaking noise as my breath came out in little gasps. Zuko caught my hands, holding on to me as I came with a sweet, warm clench around his length.

He let me come down slowly, his own breathing ragged and soft in the warm room. After a few shaky seconds, my hips twitching over his, I opened my eyes, looking down at him.

I ran my tongue along my lips and pulled off of him, working my way down his body. I wrapped my hand around his slippery cock and lazily jerked him off. His hips lifted off of the bed as he groaned, and I sucked his balls into my mouth, rolling them gently as he trembled beneath me.

When I ran my tongue along the underside of his twitching cock, I knew it wouldn’t be long. I pushed my mouth down onto his length, shaping him with a hard suck. His hand found my hair, but he didn’t press me down.

His breathing picked up as I worked him, my mouth following my fist. He gave a rough cry, his hips shifting upward and then he was as lost as I had been. He came into my mouth with several hot spurts. I sucked him down, swallowing as I continued to shape him, watching his head dig into the pillows as he hissed out my name.

Finally, I pulled away, licking the cum from my lips as he reached out and caught me under the arms. He pulled me over his body and I came to rest with my head on his chest, his softening penis against my inner thighs. His arms encircled me, rubbing lightly down my back as he kissed my forehead.

“Morning,” I said after a long moment. My throat felt a little hoarse from last night’s screaming orgasm, but I doubted the others would notice when they arrived.

“Morning, baby,” Zuko said as I lifted my head and rested my chin on his chest. He smoothed my hair back, a sleepy look of contentment on his face that put a thrill up my back. “Sleep well?”

“Mmm hmm,” I said, swirling my fingertip across his chest. “The others are coming this morning.”

“I know. We should get up, but I don’t want to leave this bed,” he said, as he slid his hand around the nape of my neck, this thumb brushing my jaw. “I just want to make love to you all day.”

My grin was as wanton as any I’d ever conjured. “Me too, but I think they’d wonder where we were.”

He stuck out his lower lip in a pout. I lifted up off of him and kissed him teasingly, but he held on to me, deepening it until my head was spinning.

How did he have the ability to do that to me? We’d just made love and already I was ready for more. I couldn’t get enough of him. I lifted away a little, licking my lips. Zuko stared at me with an intense expression on his face, one I couldn’t quite interpret. It wasn’t lust. It was something else entirely.

A knock on the door made us both jump and turn toward the source of the sound.

“Fire Lord Zuko?”

My lips curled a little, an expression I couldn’t help. Trust Wu-Ten to ruin an intimate moment. I had the feeling he’d been listening to us having sex again. It was really starting to creep me out. What if he’d been watching through the peephole?

The very idea made me want to throw up.

“What is it, Wu-Ten?” Zuko called, a sharpness in his voice that told me that he was annoyed at Wu-Ten’s interruption as well. Maybe he was starting to suspect his valet of peeping too.

“Are you awake, sire?”

Zuko sighed and slung his legs over the side of the bed. He walked naked over to the door, cracking it open and pushing his face in the crack, while I drew the sheets around me to cover my nakedness. I knew damn well that Wu-Ten could hear him through the door though.

“ _Obviously._ What is it?”

“Your breakfast is ready, sire.”

“Yes, thank you. We’ll be there in a moment,” Zuko said, snapping the door closed again and turning back to me with a sigh. He started to say something to me, but I held up a finger, listening for the sound of Wu-Ten walking away.

The valet seemed to hesitate outside the door and then very slowly he crept back down the hallway. I let out a breath and dropped my hand as Zuko turned a scowl at the door.

“He creeps me out,” I said, gathering the sheets around me and climbing out of the bed. I felt a nervous flutter in my stomach as I said it. I’d been trying not to bad mouth Zuko’s valet. I don’t know why, but I was a little afraid of coming off like a demanding girlfriend or something. Wu-Ten was rude and cold to me, but he’d never really gone out of his way to _do_ anything to me. I might suspect that he listened to us or peeped through keyholes, but I had no real proof.

I knew that Zuko had noticed, but I didn’t know if he’d ever talked to Wu-Ten about it. Come to think of it, it kind of annoyed me that he hadn’t said something to his valet.

“He’s…attentive.”

“He’s rude,” I said bluntly, pulling clothing out of the dresser—a little red sundress with gold embellishments on it. Since living in the Fire Nation, I’d started dressing like a native. The rest of the Kyoshi Warriors and I already stood out like sore thumbs while we were in uniform, it seemed easier to blend in when I wasn’t on duty.

“He has a way about him,” Zuko admitted, looking a little uncomfortable as he grabbed a pair of pants and pulled them on. Something about the dismissiveness in his tone put my back up.

“A way is one thing, being downright rude is another. The man hates me,” I said, my good mood souring.

“No, he doesn’t!” Zuko said, shaking his head. “He always asks how you are.”

“He probably wonders if you’ve dumped me yet,” I said, pulling the dress on over my head.

“Why would he want me to do that?”

“Because he thinks I’m some Earth Kingdom tart out to turn you into a sex monster or something,” I said over my shoulder as I went into the bathing room. I peed, brushed my teeth, and then grabbed my brush, only to find Zuko in the doorway, a dark look on his frowning face.

“He doesn’t think you’ve turned me into a sex monster. He’s really understanding, actually,” Zuko insisted as I ran the brush through my hair. I felt annoyance come over me in a hot wave of suppressed anger.

“Please tell me you don’t tell him about us! It’s bad enough he went shopping for our sex toys and knows that I like to be spanked, but I really don’t think I could handle it if you tell me you tell him the gritty details.”

Zuko looked uncomfortable all of a sudden, which told me everything. Anger flashed in me, white-hot. “Not the…details. Just…”

“UGH!” I said, tossing my brush down and pushing past him. “I can’t believe you’d tell that troll about our sex life!”

Zuko followed me. “Well, who else would I tell?”

“Literally anyone but him!”

“Why do you hate him?”

“Because he’s an asshole and he makes me feel like a cheap slut every time he looks at me! I think he listens to us having sex, Zuko! It’s creepy!” I said, pointing to the door and Wu-Ten creeping around the house somewhere beyond it.

Zuko looked stunned. “He doesn’t listen to us. That’s ridiculous.”

“I know he does! And the way he looks at me… I don’t like it,” I said, feeling wrong-footed. I couldn’t believe that Zuko was brushing off my concerns. He was looking at me like I was crazy. “Why are you making excuses for him?”

“I’m not! I just… He helped me, Suki. Okay?”

“With what?”

The question sat in the air between us. Zuko ran a hand through his long black hair, looking uncomfortable all of a sudden. “With…us.”

I blinked at him, feeling a bitter taste in my mouth. “With us?”

“Yeah,” Zuko said, not meeting my gaze now. He stared at the floor as he belted his vest at the waist. “I… I was in a bad place after the first time we… When I hit you that first time.”

My eyebrows shot up. “You mean the first time you bent me over your desk and spanked me?”

“Yeah.”

“I was under the impression we both enjoyed that,” I said flatly. Zuko’s gaze met mine and there was a guilty light in his eyes. “You didn’t?”

“I did! And that was the…that was the problem, Suki. I liked it, and I thought… Well, what if there was something wrong with me? I don’t know. And we kept doing it, and I thought… I thought it meant that I was… I thought there was something wrong with me because I enjoyed doing that to you, okay?”

“So you talked to Wu-Ten about it, but not me?” I asked, feeling a hurt deep in my heart at the thought of Zuko questioning himself.

“I was afraid you just… I was afraid you just went along with it because…”

“Because why?”

“To please me,” he said miserably, fear flitting in his eyes. “Because I’m the Fire Lord.”

I stared at him in shock. “You think I’d let any man do something to me that I didn’t want him to do, regardless of who or what he was? You think so little of me?”

“WHAT? No! I didn’t say that. Don’t put words in my mouth!”

“Well, what am I supposed to think?”

“I’m not saying this right! I was just uncertain, okay?”

“You should have asked me how I felt about it. I thought I made it really clear. I _do_ want to please you, Zuko. All I want is to please you when we play out a scene. That’s what gets me off, but I don’t let you tie me up and spank me because you’re the Fire Lord. I do it because you’re _you_. I do it because I want to, because I like giving up control to you. I trust you in a way I’ve never trusted anyone else. I’ve never done these things with anyone else. Before you, I didn’t even know that I _wanted_ these things! It’s like you awakened something in me, Zuko, something visceral. I do it because I enjoy it and because I want to please you. If you’d asked me yourself, I would have told you. I just thought you knew.”

“I thought I did, but I was… I was afraid of wanting you, Suki. For a lot of reasons. I thought the things I wanted were… Sick, or something. I was afraid I was going to hurt you.”

“You’d never hurt me and I know that.”

“You do, but _I_ didn’t. I didn’t trust me! You’ve seen my family, Suki. My father is a sadistic bastard. My grandfather was just as bad. I didn’t know how to trust the things I was feeling, the things I wanted to do to you! So I talked to Wu-Ten about it. He told me it was okay to want to do these things. He made me realize I was being stupid. And he gave some good advice.”

I felt wrong-footed again. I sank down onto the bed, biting my lip. I felt miserable all of a sudden. “I didn’t know you felt that way.”

“It was only at the beginning. After the first night. It was too new. I didn’t think I could talk to you about it,” Zuko said as he sat down next to me. He took my hand, our fingers entwining. I stared down at our hands, feeling odd, off-kilter. I was still angry, but I wasn’t sure why.

“So Wu-Ten helped you to get over your fears?”

“Yeah. He listened and told me to trust my instincts, and not to feel bad about what we did. It helped to put it into words. It helped. It made me feel more in control… Suki, the first time in my office, I was really confused. I’d never felt so out of control in my life, but you also made me feel so in control. I know it doesn’t make sense.  I also felt like I had assaulted you.”

I lifted my head and stared at him in horror. “You didn’t! It was completely consensual!”

He smiled a little and kissed my hands. “I know that now, but I was so ashamed and afraid back then. I didn’t want to hurt you…but I liked it when I did.”

“Zuko…”

“I’m sorry I talked to Wu-Ten about it. I know he can be a prick, and he’s really good at interrupting us, but I don’t think he hates you.”

I wasn’t so sure about that, but it felt wrong to argue. I didn’t have much to base my feelings on, after all. He’d helped Zuko come to terms with this relationship of ours, when I was too clueless to guess that he might be struggling with it. I adapted easily, but then again, I’d always expressed my sexuality easily. Until our relationship, Zuko had only been with Mai, who hadn’t been the most passionate of lovers and while he’d never said, I had the feeling he’d repressed a lot of his needs over the years.

Zuko had awakened something in me, that was true, but I had definitely awakened something in him too. That he had struggled with it hadn’t occurred to me.

I took a deep breath, thoughts lingering on Wu-Ten. I’d probably never like the man, but maybe I had read him wrong. If he’d talked Zuko down off of the ledge, how bad could be be? “Maybe I overreacted.”

Zuko kissed my cheek. “I just don’t think Wu-Ten hates you as much as you think.”

“Hmm,” was all I could manage.

That seemed to satisfy Zuko though. “Come on, baby. I’m starving.”

I allowed him to pull me to my feet and out the door. We ate breakfast on the balcony overlooking the ocean, the warm, salty breeze blowing our hair off of our necks. Wu-Ten kept a respectful distance, and I vowed to be a little nicer to him. I was still uncomfortable with him knowing about our sex life, but that ship had sailed and I was going to have to get used to it, I supposed.

At noon, we saw the barest speck in the sky, a familiar shape amongst the clouds that came ever closer. Our fight left behind, Zuko and I ran down to the beach to greet our friends. Appa landed with a soft thump in the soft sand, a loud growl of greeting leaving him.

“Appa!” I said, burying my face in his thick, coarse white fur. He turned his head and licked my arm. I didn’t even mind. It had been so long since I’d seen him.

“Don’t we get a greeting? What are we, chopping liver?” Sokka called from the saddle, his head peeking over the side. I tilted back and stared up at him.

“Hey, you!” I said with a wide grin. Sokka flipped over the edge of the saddle and slid down Appa’s side. He landed next to me and scooped me up into a warm hug. I hugged him, but we both pulled back quickly.

His appraising blue eyes traveled down me, and I wondered how I looked to him, which was a silly response. But it’s not every day you see your ex-boyfriend again. We’d parted as friends, but it had been a long time since we’d seen each other.

“You look good, Suki,” Sokka said after a long moment. I was aware of Zuko, who was talking to Aang, watching me out the corner of his eye.

“Thanks, you too,” I said as something heavy landed beside us. We both jumped out of the way, staring at the bag on the ground, and then up at the woman who had tossed it.

“You look fine to me too, Suki,” Toph said, pulling an impish grin beneath her long bangs.  Then she tossed another bag down. This one hit Sokka on the head. He cried out and caught the bag.

“Watch it, Toph!”

She stuck out her tongue in our general direction and then disappeared. I heard her say something to Katara, who was on the other side tossing down bags where they wouldn’t hit unsuspecting people.

Aang gave me a hug when he got down and so did Katara, who then turned to do the same to Zuko.

Katara gave him a weird look as she pulled back.

“What?” Zuko asked, looking uncomfortable under Katara’s knowing stare.

“You seem…more relaxed,” Katara said. “You’re usually… I don’t know, stiffer.”

“Trust me, he’s still plenty stiff,” I said, making Katara turn toward me, her eyebrows lifting. I felt a blush rising in my cheeks as Zuko meet my gaze. His mouth twitched and I could tell that he was trying not to laugh.

“Uh…how about we go on up to the house? You guys can settle in and then we can catch up,” Zuko said, putting his hand on Katara’s upper back to guide her toward the steps. He glanced back at me and I knew the gleam in his eyes.

Together the six of us grabbed their bags and lugged them up the steps to the beach house. Once inside, Wu-Ten guided us to the rooms he’d made up for them. I passed him and felt his gaze on me, but ignored it. I was determined to turn over a new leaf with him. Or at least ignore his attitude.

Aang and Katara went into their room together, leaving Zuko, Sokka, Toph and I in the hallway.

“Whose bag do I have?” I asked the two of them, lifting the bag in my arms.

“That’s Toph’s,” Sokka said.

“Okay, well, this is your room, Toph,” I said, opening the door on my left. “Sokka you can take the one across the hall.”

I saw Toph’s elbow jam back into Sokka’s middle. He winced and then cleared his throat.

“What’s the matter?” I asked, looking between them.

“Well,” Sokka started, rubbing at the back of his neck. “The thing is… You see…”

“Spit it out, Sokka,” I said, though it was dawning on me what he was trying to say.

“Toph and I are kind of…together. Sort of.”

“We’ve been sleeping together,” Toph said bluntly. “For like four months now.”

I blinked at them and then glanced at Zuko, who was watching me carefully. “Um… Oh. Okay. Well, then you can both have this room, I guess?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know how to tell you,” Sokka said in a rush. “It’s kind of weird, you know? I mean, it’s not something you just spring on someone, right?”

I held up a hand, pulling a smile. While I hadn’t expected it, it wasn’t exactly shocking to me. Toph and Sokka had always had this tension between them, one I’d had a hard time defining. Clearly they did too. “It’s fine, Sokka. Seriously, I’m happy for the two of you.”

“Don’t let him fool you into thinking we’re dating. We’re strictly fucking,” Toph said, taking her bag from my arms. She walked into the bedroom, leaving me to turn to Sokka.

He looked a little stricken. “She doesn’t like labels.”

“Not judging.”

“Still… Are you cool with this?”

“I’m fine. Actually, we were going to wait to tell you, but… Zuko and I are dating too.”

Sokka dropped his bag on the floor and rounded on Zuko. “Excuse me? You’re dating my ex-girlfriend?”

“Yes, I am,” Zuko said, as I saw Katara and Aang poke their heads around the edge of their door. The shock on their faces made my lips press together to hide my smile. “Do you have a problem with that?”

Sokka tilted back his head, appraising Zuko, who had immediately gone on the offensive. He glanced over at me and then back at Zuko. “You treating her right?”

“Yes, he is!” I said shrilly, feeling annoyed now. This wasn’t how I’d planned to tell them. “Zuko and I are really happy together, okay?”

But Sokka wasn’t listening to me. He glared at Zuko. “If you hurt her, I swear I’ll break both of your legs, fire boy.”

“Stand down, Sokka,” Toph said, an annoyed edge in her voice now. I glanced at her and saw the twist to her lips. They might not be putting labels on it, but she definitely didn’t like Sokka getting territorial over me, and I didn’t blame her. I didn’t much like it either.

Sokka glanced at Toph too, and immediately the tension ran out of his body. He held out his hand to Zuko, who took it with a cursory shake.

“Are we okay?” Zuko asked.

“Yeah, we’re okay,” Sokka said and then turned to me. “If he hurts you, I’ll kill him.”

Then he took up his bag and ushered Toph into their room. The door slammed shut, leaving me and Zuko in the hallway, and Katara and Aang watching us from the doorway.

“Congrats, you two,” Katara said as Aang beamed behind her. Then she pushed Aang back into the room and closed the door.

Zuko rubbed a hand down his face. “That went better than I expected.”

“Really? I thought it was going to be a lot less testosterone filled.”

“He didn’t punch me.”

“You thought he might?” I shot at him as I walked down the hallway. He caught up with me and grabbed my arm.

“It’s what I would do,” he said as I glared at him. He bent and kissed my lips quickly, but I wasn’t feeling very loving at the moment. “If we broke up and someone else started dating you, I’d probably kill them.”

“That’s very possessive of you,” I said hotly.

“When it comes to you, I feel very possessive,” he said, nuzzling my nose, his hands around my waist.

“You make me sound like an object,” I pointed out. “I’m not a thing.”

“No, you’re not. You’re the most incredible woman I’ve ever known. And you’re mine just the same,” he said and kissed me.

Damn him. I couldn’t stay mad at him when he kissed me like that and he knew it. I wrapped my arms around him, getting lost in his kiss, totally forgetting that we were in the middle of the hallway. Heat flashed in me, hot and hard. I knew he felt it too, that instant need for each other.

He took a ragged breath against my lips and ran his hand down my ass, but I took it off and stepped away. “Behave yourself.”

“Never,” he grinned and then kissed my temple again, as Aang and Katara opened their door. He called out to them, walking past me and catching up with them. I watched him walk away, grinning to myself. As I turned around in the opposite direction, I saw Wu-Ten at the end of the hallway. He met my gaze for a long moment, a sneer on his lips.

Then he walked away, leaving me with a creeping feeling in my stomach.

* * *

We spent the next couple of days on the beach, hanging out and catching up with each other. I had missed my friends, and I know Zuko had too. It had been too long. The awkwardness between Sokka and Zuko faded into good-natured ribbing, for which I was grateful. I don’t think I would have had the patience for any more masculine posturing.

Toph had seemed wary of me, like I might lecture her about dating my ex, but for some reason, I found watching the two of them together amusing. I’d always suspected that Toph had a crush on Sokka, but Toph being Toph she’d hidden it well beneath arm punches and off-color jokes. She still did a good job of itbut I could tell by the way Sokka put his arms around her at the bonfire that there was a lot of caring between them.

Toph could play it cool all she wanted, but I knew that smitten look on her face.

On the third day, Katara and Toph and I were alone on the beach. The guys were playing in the water watching Aang attempting windsurf. Toph was absentmindedly practicing her sandbending, creating cities and elaborate mini-statues out of nothing. I was pretty impressed, just watching her.

“So how did you and Sokka hook up?” I asked her. She shrugged.

“Got horny and drunk one night. His dick seemed like as good a place as any to end up. Well, you know. You’ve been there,” Toph said with a grin, rolling a handful of sand around in her palm. I chuckled a little.

“Do you have to be so crude?” Katara said.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Sugar Queen. I’ll try not to mention your brother’s dick in your company in future,” Toph shot at her while I tried not to laugh. Katara’s face went a little red at that and she flopped down on her back on the blanket. “It’s not like you haven’t waxed poetical about Aang’s prowess before.”

“There was no waxing!”

“Is all of him bald? I’ve always wondered,” Toph said, making Katara sit up again.

“Toph!”

“The tattoos too…  Now, is there another arrow on his cock, or–?” Toph started, but Katara bend water at her face with a splash, soaking her. Toph spat out a mouthful of seawater and then grinned. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“I hate you,” Katara grumped at her. “Why are we talking about my husband’s or my brother’s privates when we could be talking about Zuko’s?”

“Ohhh, good idea!” Toph crowed as she dropped the towel from her face and turned to me. “So how did that happen?”

“Umm… We just sorta…” I thought for a moment. How did I tell them that I’d started our relationship off by giving Zuko a blow job in his office? “It just happened.”

“Not good enough, I need details!”

“Same,” Katara said and I shot her a look. “What? He’s not related to me and I’m curious!”

“What do you want to know?”

“How big is it?” Toph blurted. Katara hit her arm.

I glanced at the beach, where Zuko and the others were splashing each other. Zuko’s body glistened with water. I felt my mouth water. It had been a rough couple of days. We’d managed to steal a few moments with each other, but the thin walls had prevented anything more interesting than a quickie, which had resulted in me biting a pillow to keep my moaning down. I’d been going out of my mind, and I couldn’t imagine Zuko felt much better about it. Every time he looked at me, I was sure he was going to snap and strip me naked right there.

I really hoped that he would, to be quite honest.

I leaned in toward the girls. “Zuko is… He’s intense.”

Katara’s eyebrows lifted. “Really? He always seems so shy.”

I felt my skin flush. “Let’s just say he surprised me, in the best possible way.”

“So the sex is good?” Toph prompted and I bit down on my lip.

“It’s incredible,”I said and then laughed. “You have no idea.”

“Well, I would if you’d stop being so vague!” Toph said churlishly.

Katara sighed and glanced at Aang, who was riding high on the crest of a wave. She looked back at me and her smile was soft. “So has he told you that he loves you yet?”

It was like ice water down my spine.

“Umm. We haven’t… Umm… It’s… No,” I stammered as made a face.

“Oh,” Katara said, sympathy in her voice. “Maybe he’s just being shy about it?”

“Maybe he’s just using you for sex?”

“TOPH!”

“What? I’m just using _Sokka_ for sex! It’s a thing that happens, Katara. Not every relationship is hearts and flowers and romance and marriage! Sometimes it’s just hardcore sex on the desk in your office after hours. Nothing wrong with that!”

“You had sex with Sokka in your office?”

“Yeah. And his office too,” Toph laughed and then sighed dramatically. “He’s my little bitch.”

Katara looked like she wanted to throw up, but she ignored Toph and turned to me. “Are you in love with Zuko?”

I bit down on my lip and smiled a little. “Yes.”

“That’s what I thought,” Katara said softly. “I’ve seen the way you two look at each other. He’s in love with you. Maybe he hasn’t said it yet, but he will.”

“I’ve not been worried about it,” I lied.

“You could say it first, you know,” Toph pointed out. “I don’t think the guy has to do it first.”

“Do you even believe in love, Toph?” Katara shot at her.

Toph leaned her head back, pursing her lips. “Sure, I do. Just never felt it yet.”

“Because you leave before they can get attached,” Katara said scathingly.

“That’s called slut shaming and you’re better than that,” Toph said with a grin. “Nothing wrong with getting your kicks and getting the hell out of there before they get clingy.”

“Well, you’ve been pretty clingy with Sokka. You’ve been with him longer than anyone you’ve dated,” Katara said smugly.

“What can I say? He screws good.”

“TOPH!”

I tuned out Toph’s dirty chuckle and Katara’s huffed indignation, chewing my lip as I watched Zuko in the water. I wanted to tell him that I was in love with him, I did…but what if he really wasn’t in love with me? What if I said it and it pushed him away?

I didn’t know what I would do if that happened.

“Seriously, Suki…how did you two hook up?” Toph pressed and I turned a wicked smirk her way. She wanted the juicy details? Well, I’d give her the juicy details…

“I gave him a blow job in his office and then he bent me over his desk and fucked me so hard I couldn’t walk right,” I drawled and grinned at Katara’s shocked gasp and Toph’s crow of delight.

Worth it.

* * *

We headed up to the beach house that night and ate dinner together, then we hung out on the balcony, relaxing in each others company, talking about nothing and just enjoying each other. Toph was stretched across a lounge chair, with Sokka rubbing her feet. I’d never seen him so whipped before. I was enjoying it though. Maybe Toph didn’t think it was love, but it looked close enough. I watched as Katara settled into the crook of Aang’s arm on the lounge chair. His fingers combed through her long hair as she sighed into him. They looked so happy and content.

They were probably the happiest people I knew, besides Ty Lee, who could find a patch of sunshine on on a stormy day. I watched them with a smile, as Zuko put his arm around me.

I glanced up at him, and saw him watching me watching Aang and Katara. He bent toward my ear and whispered, “They look happy.”

“They’re in love,” I said softly, and felt an ache in my chest as I did.

Zuko’s hand faltered on my shoulder and then he pulled away a little. Something about that gesture, the hesitancy in it, hit me hard. I stood up, feeling numb, the blood rushing in my head. Everyone looked at me in surprise. I was just as surprised as they were.

“Suki?” Zuko asked, but I just mumbled something about going on a walk and then I was gone, heading into the house and towards the stairs. Tears were blinding my eyes, and everything was blurry, even though the world was full of painful, sharp edges.

A hand caught me at the top of the stairs and I was turned into a warm, familiar body. Zuko’s arms went around me, pulling me against him. I went willingly, though I wanted to break away from him too. I was feeling really confused all of a sudden.

“Baby, what’s wrong? Talk to me,” he said, cupping my face and raining kisses down my wet cheeks. “Did I do something wrong? Please… Please talk to me…”

“It’s stupid,” I started, wiping at my eyes, angered at myself for crying. I wasn’t a crier, normally.

“If you’re this upset, then it’s not stupid,” Zuko said patiently, cradling my face gently. I stared up at him in the dimly lit hallway, at the man I loved. “Please tell me. I’ll make it right, I promise.”

“You don’t know what’s wrong?”

“No,” he said, but there was a tone in his voice that told me maybe he suspected what it was. I sniffed back tears and squared my shoulders.

“You can’t think of anything that I might want to hear?” I said, pushing his hands off of me and stepping away. Zuko looked stunned for a moment, as the words fell into the air between us.

“Dammit,” he cursed, which made it all the worse.

“Don’t even worry about it,” I started prosaically, lifting my chin. “I’m not going to force you to say something you don’t feel. Just forget I even brought it up.”

“I waited too long,” he said, wiping his hand down his face. “I’ve been trying all week to say the words, but it just never seemed perfect. Well, it did in the bathtub, but we got interrupted, and then I just lost my nerve, but that’s my fault and not yours. And now… FUCK!”

He was rambling a little, looking as lost and as miserable as I felt.

“Zuko?”

He seemed to shake himself a little and focused his attention on me with an intense expression on his face. He grasped both of my upper arms and looked me in the eyes.

“I’m in love with you, Suki,” he said thickly. “I am so incredibly, out of my mind in love with you that it scares the living shit out of me. I’ve been waiting to say it, for the perfect moment, but…”

My heart hammered out of my chest, the pain I’d felt leaving me in an instant. “I didn’t mean to force you to–”

“No! You didn’t! I was being stupid and I waited too long and… And do you feel the same way?” There was pained, hopeful uncertainty there, so much that it made my chest ache.

I smiled widely. “I do! I love you so much!”

Zuko’s smile was slow, but it melted the hurt inside of me, and turned it into a puddle of nothing in my chest. His gaze flicked down to my lips. I knew he wanted to kiss me.

I made the first move, launching myself at him, suddenly feeling the hunger we’d been suppressing all week. I wanted him. I needed him.

Zuko caught me, his arms going around my body as our mouths slammed together, rough and hungry. My hands buried themselves in his hair as he bent over me, his kiss hot and hard. I moaned into his mouth and he returned the sound, his hand cupping my ass with a hard squeeze.

Then he turned us, physically pushing me up against the wall. I didn’t mind. I just wanted to keep kissing him, the man I loved. Our mouths crashed together with wild abandon, not caring who might come along and see us kissing like hormone-soaked teenagers.

When Zuko’s hands got beneath my skirt, it was all I could do to keep from crying out. Yes, I wanted him to touch me. I wanted him to take me.

With one hard yank, he tore the crotch of my panties, making me gasp at the ferocity and savage suddenness of it. His fingers were in my cunt the next moment though, rough and thick, pushing upward. I lifted up on my tiptoes, gasping as his fingers opened me to him. He kissed me fiercely, making promises in those kisses. I clenched around his fingers, my hips shifting into his thrusts.

“Oh, fuck…” I said as he pulled on my bottom lip.

“I want you,” he breathed against my neck.

“Not here.”

“Here,” he said and I could tell by the shake in his shoulders that he couldn’t wait until we got to our room. Neither could I. I wanted him inside of me as badly as he wanted me. Who cared if anyone saw?

“Yes,” I said, pushing at his clothing. His pants came down his hips, his cock springing free. He was hard for me and I gloried in what I could do to him, how I could please him. How I loved him.

His fingers left me dripping as he pulled away and I squirmed, eager to feel him inside of me. He grasped my left leg, lifting it up around his hip as he shoved me against the wall. I guided his cock between my legs, my pulse jumping.

He thrust into me with force, making me cry out. I stifled the cry against his shoulder, biting down on his shirt as he fucked me into the wall in fast, brutal strokes.

He wasn’t being gentle. I didn’t need him to be. Sometimes love is painful, flesh against bone in a fierce, bruising crush. My whole body thrilled in triumph as I claimed him, as he claimed me. I clung to him, nails digging in, teeth digging in as if by making my mark on him I could make him mine for all to see.

“Mine,” I gasped, feeling primordial in my need for him. “You’re mine…”

“Yes,” he moaned and ground me so hard against the wall I thought my hips were going to pop out of place. I could feel an orgasm coming, the deep down clench as it invaded every single one of my nerve endings. I gave myself up to it, not caring if I screamed. “Come with me!”

I couldn’t answer, I was too lost in the rough friction of our colliding bodies. My body answered though, clamping down on his as my orgasm burst into full being. I cried out as he did the same, pinning me to the wall as he came inside of me with a hard thrust.

“I love you, I love you, I love you…” Zuko mumbled against my neck. I shook in his arms, my whole body on fire. He caught my mouth and I kissed him as hard as I dared, holding on for dear life.

I didn’t want to ever let go.


	8. Confrontation!

“We should clean up,” I said, staring at the mess on the floor and tables. Zuko’s birthday party had been a roaring success. We’d invited the high society residents of Ember Island, plus a few of the locals that we’d become friendly with over the past couple of weeks. It had been a long night, filled with boisterous music, dancing, too much food, _way_ too much liquor and a lot of laughter.

I’d never seen Zuko so relaxed. He’d even danced with me out on the balcony. I could still feel his warm breath on my neck, his lips lingering. His whispered “I love you's” echoed in my heart, making my whole body tingle.

I was never going to get tired of hearing that.

Katara, who was standing next to me, her hands on her hips, was staring at the mess as well. She pursed her lips. “Do we have to do it now?”

“Ehhh…” I said noncommittally. I glanced around the room, but all of the guests had left a half-hour ago. Toph and Sokka were in the corner of the room, sprawled on a couch passing a bottle of rice whiskey between them. They looked completely shit-faced…and to be honest, I wasn’t that far behind. I’d had a lot to drink. We all had.

“Where’s my husband?” Katara asked, ignoring Sokka’s braying laughter as Toph sloshed alcohol on the floor. I shrugged unhelpfully. I’d lost track of Aang right around the time I’d lost track of Zuko. We’d made out on the balcony for a while, but Wu-Ten had interrupted us, asking if we needed anything else to drink.

My resolution to give Zuko’s valet the benefit of the doubt had been sorely tested. Drunk and horny made for a Suki with very little patience. I hadn’t snapped at him, but I’d wanted to. _Jerk._

I didn’t know where the valet had taken off to, but I was glad he was gone.

“Sokka? Have you seen Aang?” Katara called to her brother, who looked up with a glazed expression on his face. That probably had a lot to do with Toph licking salt off of his neck, as much as the drink. I lifted an eyebrow as he seemed to struggle to form a sentence for a long moment.

“Uh. Aang? Yeah… Aaaahhhh!” he trailed off into a moan as Toph bit down on his neck. “Holy shit…”

“I’m gonna throw up,” Katara said flatly, though I didn’t know if it was because of watching her brother and Toph all over each other, or because of the alcohol. It was probably both. I stepped to the side, and the room swayed a little.

“I drank too much,” I said and then blew out a breath. “There’s no way I’m gonna clean this place up tonight.”

“Fuck that,” Katara agreed and then belched. She put her hand over her mouth and then giggled.

“He’s outside with Zuko,” Sokka said and we both turned to him again.

“Huh?”

“The Av—the Aan—the Aang-atar. He’s with Zuzukaboom. Outside,” Sokka slurred and pointed one floppy arm in the direction of the door as Toph took another drink out of the bottle.

“I saw him!” she piped up and then immediately snorted with laughter. Sokka joined her, and their voices brayed through the air, making me wince.

“I should go get them,” Katara said in a numb voice. She looked down at her feet after a long moment, her brown face turning a little green. “Suki, the floor is _breathing._ ”

“Uh-oh,” I managed stupidly as she dived for a vase in the corner. The sound of her retching filled the air. I wrinkled my nose as the smell of sour alcohol filled the air. At the same moment, the door opened, spilling Aang and Zuko into the room. They looked about as steady as the rest of us and I noticed a bottle in Zuko’s hand, which looked about empty.

“Katara? You okay?” Aang asked, even though it was pretty clear that his wife was definitely not okay. He stumbled over to her and pushed her hair back as she threw up in the vase. She moaned as she sank to the ground. Aang bent down with her, rubbing her back and whispering soothingly to her.

“Katara’s puke-bending!” Toph called, making Katara glare at her over the rim of the vase. “Is puke-bending a thing? I feel like that should be a thing. Sokka, is that not a thing?”

“You’re drunk,” Sokka declared, putting his arm around her.

“You’re _sexy,_ ” she said and kissed him. That devolved into a rather sloppy makeout session, the sound of their kissing almost as loud as Katara’s puking had been. The waterbender stopped, moaning miserably as Aang set the vase aside. I hoped it wasn’t expensive.

“Come on, sweetie. Let’s get some water in you and then get you to bed,” Aang said, scooping Katara into his arms. Zuko clapped him on the shoulder as they walked out of the room. Aang stumbled into the doorframe on the way out and I heard him curse.

“Hell of a party,” Zuko said, meeting my gaze as I laughed and spread my arms wide.

“Nothing but the best for my Fire Lord,” I said as he walked over to me and put his arms around my middle. He nestled his face in my hair, pulling me close against the hard, warm contours of his body. He smelled so good. I dug my face into his shoulder and reached around, grabbing a double handful of his ass.

Zuko made an interested sound in his throat and I felt his hand tighten in my hair. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

“Mmmm… I’m your bodyguard. Got to make sure everything is nice and…guarded.”

“You just like grabbing my ass.”

I shook my head and tilted back my face to stare into his eyes. “You’re the ass-man, not me.”

Zuko pulled a simmering, sexy half-smile, his hands spreading down my back to my ass. “I can’t argue with that.”

I looked up at him, and his expression was…inflamed. I loved it when he looked at me like that. He studied my face, biting down on his lower lip.

“What are you thinking?”

“It’s your birthday. You deserve a present.”

“I already had my birthday present, remember?” he said with a rough little squeeze of my ass.

“How could I forget it?” I grinned up at him and slowly licked my lips, pulling his body a little closer to mine. I leaned up and whispered in his ear, “I’m not wearing any panties.”

Zuko’s whole body shuddered and he let out a breath against my neck, as I glanced back at Sokka and Toph, who were still making out in a drunken tangle of limbs. I doubted they were listening, or even aware we were still in the same room.

“You’re asking for a spanking, aren’t you?” Zuko whispered in my ear and his mouth caught on my shoulder, nibbling it a little. Little shivers burst to life along my skin, racing downward.

“I’m not the birthday boy. _You’re_ the one who gets a spanking tonight.”

“That might be interesting,” Zuko said and then smacked my ass lightly. I bit down on a moan, very aware that we weren’t alone in the room, though another glance at Toph and Sokka told me they were still too busy with each other to notice us. “Maybe we should try that?”

“Maybe we should?” I said and then kissed him, slowly, my tongue rolling against his. Everything was warm and fuzzy, and my pulse was leaping like a drunken, stumbling thing. Oh, this man. He was going to be the death of me.

I pulled out of his arms and stepped back, breathing hard as I stared into his glassy eyes. His face was red, his whole body tensed, ready to strike.

“Suki…”

I crooked my finger at him and he followed me up the stairs and toward the bedroom, catching my hips as we walked. He had his hands all over me and I thrilled at the hot weight of them cupping my breasts and then sliding to my ass. When we reached the room, I fumbled with the door, and he reached around, opening it with a hard yank.

Then he picked me up under my arms and practically shoved me into the room. I laughed as he set me back down, closed and locked the door and then turned back on me.

“Show me.” I nibbled my lips and slowly lifted my skirt up, proving to him that I really wasn’t wearing any panties. “Turn around.”

I turned in place, displaying my bare ass to him, which I wiggled enticingly, arching my back to push it outward. I glanced over my shoulder at him and then ran my hand all over my ass, teasing him. When I slapped it, I saw his eyes flash.

“You want me to do that for you?” he asked, licking his bottom lip slowly.

“I thought the birthday boy got the spankings? I seem to recall a conversation about that…”

“You want to spank me?”

“What’s the matter, can’t handle it?” I shot at him, unbuttoning my dress. I let it fall to the floor at my feet and watched as Zuko’s gaze slid from my feet to my face in one slow, sensual appreciative stare.

“I can handle anything you throw at me, baby.”

“You sure about that?”

“Try me.”

My smile was wicked.

“Take off your clothes,” I said to him, walking over to the chair in the corner, sitting down with a wobble as my drunk senses spun on me a little. I realized that I was at the “everything’s hilarious” stage of drunk though, as I giggled, watching Zuko pulling his pants down. He nearly tripped stepping out of them and for some reason that was hilarious to me.

“Don’t laugh,” he huffed at me, straightening, his hair cascading down one shoulder.

“Don’t fall and break your neck,” I said as I let my hands wander down my body. “If you die, who am I gonna find that can eat my pussy so well?”

Zuko pulled a wide grin and came over to stand in front of me. His cock was half-hard and I couldn’t keep my eyes off of it. “You think I eat your pussy good?”

I looked up into his eyes, nodding. “Mmhmm.”

Zuko got down on his knees in front of me, as I leaned back in the chair, throwing my legs over the arms in a move that practically shoved his face into my crotch. Zuko leaned forward and kissed my clit, but then retreated. I made a disappointed noise, biting down on my fingernail as I watched.

“You know,” Zuko said, running his finger up and down my inner thighs. “I never thought I was that good at it until we started sleeping together. Mai never liked it. We tried it once or twice, but she said it was too messy. I figured she just thought I was bad at it. Maybe she really did think it was too messy though. That’s why she didn’t like to give blow jobs.”

I reached down, grabbing his chin and forcing his gaze up. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but stop talking about your ex-girlfriend and put your tongue in my cunt.”

Then I shoved his face into my pussy. He didn’t seem to mind, obliging me with a hot, wet stroke of his tongue and a hard growl. I put my hand on his head, leaning back and watching him tongue-fuck me. He licked upwards, teasing my clit until it was quivering and I was squirming in the chair. His fingers slipped inside of me, pulling out my wetness with a tickling wiggle. My body excitedly accepted each thrust of his fingers, hungry for more.

I floated on a sea of drunken pleasure, moaning as I closed my eyes, my fingers curled in his long hair, my hips surging up and down in response to the tease of his tongue. His fingers pressed into my pillowy depths and I gasped.

“Oh fuck, you’re gonna make me cum,” I said, as Zuko lifted his head.

“I love it when you talk dirty.”

“Did I tell you to stop?”

His grin was indecent as  he pressed his fingers to my g-spot and then bent back over me. He sucked my clit into his mouth with a savage move that told me everything I needed to know. He was enjoying me bossing him around.

He released my throbbing clit and then immediately teased it again, until I was a mass of nerve endings, so desperate to cum I was panting, sweat popping out on my skin. I finally broke, riding a hot, wave of pleasure that lapped at my body, making me float. Zuko lifted his head, his fingers sliding in and out of my clenching pussy.

“How was that?” he asked, licking at his wet lips and looking obscenely pleased with himself.

“Messy.” He lifted one eyebrow as I pushed his hand away, slinging my legs off of the arms of the chair at the same time. I leaned forward, catching his chin and bringing him forward for a wet kiss that deepened. I could taste myself on his lips and moaned at the lusty flavor. When I pulled back, he had a dazed look on his face. I flicked my tongue against his lips. “I like it messy.”

“I’m gonna get you drunk more often.”

“Don’t take advantage of me,” I said in a mock simper and then bit down on his bottom lip. When I released it, I could see how much he was holding himself back. He wanted to fuck me.

I wanted to let him, but I was having too much fun turning the tables on him.

“I would _never_ take advantage of you.”

“I’m not as nice as you, because I feel like taking full advantage of you tonight.”

Zuko spread his hands on my thighs, pushing his thumbs into my inner thighs as if he might spread them apart again. Instead, he looked at me like I was his world. “What do you want to do to me?”

I stared at him, thinking. Finally, I said, “Do you wanna play?”

His smile was a fleeting ghost, all lusty heat. “Absolutely.”

I slid my hand down his back and over his taut buttocks. When I smacked his ass, he made a rough moan, his eyes flashing. I grabbed a handful of his ass and grinned.

“Go lay down on the bed.”

He swallowed, his whole body vibrating with excitement and anticipation. Slowly, he stood and walked over the bed. I watched as he laid back against the pillows, his cock bobbing with the motion. I stood up and grabbed my robe, pulling the sash out of the belt loops.

Zuko watched me with interest, his hand sneaking down and stroking his cock. I climbed up on the bed, straddling his thighs as I ran the silk sash through my fingers, contemplating him. Zuko’s hand moved up and down, his fist tightening as pre-cum beaded at the tip.

“I wanna tie you up,” I said, and immediately Zuko’s face flushed an even darker shade of red.

“Okay…” he said, licking his lips, his eyes shining with excitement. I leaned over him, catching his hands and looping the sash around the bed frame and then tying sloppy knots around his wrists. It wasn’t pretty, but it would do.

“Too tight?” I asked him as I glanced down. He tested his bonds, his wrists twisting a little.

“It’s fine.”

“You remember the safety words?”

Zuko lifted up and caught the peak of my dangling breast in his mouth, tugging on it with a hard suck. I hissed in a breath, feeling the tug go all the way through my body. My already stimulated groin tingled as I lifted up, my breast leaving his mouth with a hard pop. Zuko’s head sank back down to the pillow. He seemed satisfied at his little rebellion.

“I remember.”

I grinned at him, moving back down his body and straddling his hips. His cock twitched against my wet pussy as I sank my weight down onto him, pushing it flat against his stomach. Zuko groaned and tried to touch me, but his arms were trapped.

I ran my hand down the center of his body, caressing his abs, his chest, his shoulders. My nails dragged lightly along each exquisite muscle and I delighted in the way his body quivered in response. His hips shifted beneath me, trying to position himself at my opening, but I held him down.

“You want me to fuck you, don’t you, Birthday Boy?” I said, slowly sliding my wet pussy along the length of his cock and back.

“Yes,” he said through his teeth, his hips shifting beneath me with each roll of my hips. “ _Please._ ”

I moved back a little, shifting so that I was no longer rubbing against his cock. It bobbed against his stomach, and I grasped it in my hand, pushing it against my stomach as I ground my pussy against his thighs.

“But I’m not done playing with you yet,” I said, thumping his cock against my stomach. Zuko groaned and dug his head back against the pillow, his fingers wrapping around the sash tethering him to the bed. I took his cock in my fist, pumping him with a firm pressure that made his hips dance beneath me. I put my other hand on his stomach to still him, watching him moan and struggle. It made my heart race, burning through the alcohol like a lit fuse. Zuko’s eyes connected to mine as I gathered a mouthful of saliva, and let it drip from my lips. It landed in a glob on the tip of his cock and I immediately smeared it up and down the length of his shaft.

“ _Fuck,_ ” Zuko strangled out as I stroked him in my slippery fist.

I slipped down the bed a little, bending over and kissing his stomach. I trailed my tongue up the center of his body and swirled the tip of it into his navel. He moaned as I pressed my tongue into him. His cock twitched in response and I heard him groan out my name, his hips lifting into my breasts.

I leaned back, dragging my breasts along the length of his cock. I thumped his cock against one of my nipples, grinning at the response in him.

I glanced up, meeting his intense gaze, and then slid his cock between my breasts. I pushed them together, squeezing his cock between them as I stroked up and down.

“Yes, yes, _yes._..” Zuko moaned, his voice high and tight as he thrust himself between my breasts. I bent my head, sucking on his blunt head as hard as I could. Zuko’s whole body arched up off of the bed and I felt one of his feet on my hip, shoving me toward him.

I released his cock and sat up as he relaxed into the bed, his breathing ragged. His cock twitched in time with his heartbeat as I wiped at my lips.

“You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?”

“Why would you think that?” I asked, running my fingers along his cock and then lightly dragging my nails across the blunt purple tip. Zuko made a desperate little noise and I bit down on my tongue, grinning at him.

He was mine. All mine.

I worked my way back up his body, bending to kiss his thighs, his hipbone, his muscular abs, his nipples. I sucked each of them into my mouth, enjoying the salty flavor of his body. When I scraped my teeth against him, he jerked in his bonds, his hips rising off of the bed as he dug his feet in. He lifted me with him and I laughed, sitting back up and riding him back down onto the bed.

His cock dug into my clit as I shifted back and forth for a moment, enjoying the tease of it. Zuko’s gaze was hot on mine. I knew what he wanted, and when I reached between out bodies, pushing the tip of him inside of me, we both sighed in relief.

Zuko stilled beneath me, his lower lip trembling as I slowly slid down his length. I came to rest on the cradle of his thighs. I could feel him throbbing within me, hot and thick. Zuko let out a breath and slowly rolled his hips up off of the bed. I put my hands on his stomach, riding him with a gentle motion, a soft gasp leaving me as I felt him press snugly against my cervix.

I started grinding back and forth on his cock, our bodies snugly connected, my clit rubbing against him.  When I arched my spine, my hips snapping back and forth, Zuko pulled on the sash tying him to the bed so hard the frame banged against the wall. He didn’t succeed in freeing himself though.

I grinned and rode him hard, faster. I wasn’t trying to tease him anymore. I wanted to make him pop like warm champagne.

My breasts bounced as I took him in hard thrusts, the bed creaking beneath us. I wasn’t trying to be quiet. I didn’t much care about our house guests. Maybe they’d learn a thing or ten. That thought made me laugh breathlessly, my hands reaching up to cup my breasts.

“Ahhnnggg…Suki…” Zuko groaned, his hips jerking upward into me in a desperate surge. I slowed, grinding on him hard and deep, pushing him into the bed.

“Cum for me, baby…” I said, spreading my hands on his chest. I learned forward, my hips bouncing up and down again, taking his whole length as my mouth slammed onto his. He kissed me with wild abandon, lifting his head off of the bed as my body tightened around his.

I lifted up until only the tip of him was inside of me, shifting so that my thrusts pushed his cock into my g-spot with a hard jab. A spasm took hold of me almost immediately and I came with a strangled shout against his lips. I sat back, sinking down on him again, fucking him in short strokes as I came.

Zuko’s hips shifted, lifting into the tight clench of my body. I knew he was close, that he’d been waiting for me to cum first. Always so polite, that man of mine.

I rewarded his patience by fucking him into the bed as hard as I could. It didn’t take long. Zuko’s cry of pleasure was soft, deep and all animal. He came inside of me with a wet burst and I slowed, stroking him with my body, a euphoric, sweaty feeling covering me.

Zuko let out a breath and relaxed back against the bed, leaving me panting, red-faced, my pussy throbbing in time to my heartbeat, the pulse buried deep in my womb. I slowly lifted off him, semen rolling down my thighs and dribbling down his cock as I did. I grasped him, slowly milking the last droplets of cum from him. He softened in my hands and I lifted my fingers to my lips, licking them clean.

Zuko watched me with burning eyes as I slipped my fingers down between my legs and pushed them inside of me. I was dripping wet from the combined fluids of our bodies.

“I’m all messy,” I teased him, sucking my fingers into my mouth again. He bit down on his lower lip and flicked his chin at me.

“Want me to clean you up?”

I released my fingers and crawled up his body, straddling his face. Zuko lifted his head, moaning as he pushed his tongue into me with avarice. I grinned as I put my weight on his chest, watching his tongue lapping at me, darting inside in slippery little licks that made shivers burst to life along my skin.

When he drew my over-stimulated clit into his mouth, it was all I could do to keep from screaming. A few brutal strokes of his tongue and I came undone again, my hand tightening in his hair as I danced away from his mouth.

I fell back on the bed, my wet thighs clamping shut, my whole body in spasm. I put my hands between my legs, cupping my pussy as if that might stop the pleasure shivering through my body.

When I came back to myself, Zuko was watching me with a satisfied expression on his face. I sat up and bent over him, kissing him gently.

“I love you,” he said between kisses. My heart sang as I pulled back and stared into his eyes.

“Happy birthday, Zuko.”

* * *

“You awake, baby?” Zuko asked, his voice warm and familiar as he rubbed my naked back. I opened my eyes, aware of wetness against my cheek and a nasty taste in my mouth. My eyes felt crusty, and my head was pounding.

I moaned and closed my eyes again.

“I’m never drinking ever again,” I moaned, lifting my head and wiping at the drool on my chin. My mouth tasted like dead things.

“You sound like Katara.”

I felt his mouth on my neck, kissing up to my temple. I put one hand over my mouth. “Don’t kiss me. My breath smells like ass. I probably look terrible.”

“You look beautiful, as always.”

“Liar,” I shot at him as I opened my eyes a little, peeking at him through my gummed up eyelashes. The room was dark, save a single candle burning on the nightstand. “What time is it?”

“A little after nine. I didn’t want to wake you, but I thought maybe you could use some food.”

“I don’t know if I’m up for food just yet,” I said as he stroked my hair. “Why aren’t you hungover?”

“I have a really high tolerance.”

“Seriously?”

“No, I threw up four times. Then I drank a shit load of water and took some headache cure that Katara gave me. She’s was up and making breakfast for everyone.”

“How? She was puking her guts out last night.”

Zuko grinned. “I don’t know. Maybe she bent the alcohol out of her? She was annoyingly chipper.”

“That’s fucked up.”

“Not gonna argue with that,” he said with a laugh and then kissed my head again. “You wanna sleep some more?”

“Mmm…” I really didn’t want to move, but I knew I needed to get some water down me, maybe some of that headache cure. And I definitely needed to pee and brush my teeth. In fact, a nice hot shower seemed like the perfect cure-all for my hangover. “I need water. Cure. Pee. Teeth. Shower. In that order.”

“Alright, baby, water and cure coming right up,” Zuko said as I sat up. My head swam and not in a fun drunken way. More of a gigantic swollen skull ready to pop like a bubble kind of a way. I watched as Zuko poured white powder into a glass of water, stirred it with a spoon and then handed it to me. I downed the water in big, lusty gulps, realizing how dry my mouth had been.

That done, he helped me into the bathroom, leaving me to take care of the rest. An empty bladder, a clean mouth and that lovely hot shower I’d fantasized about went a long way to turning my hangover into something manageable. When I got out, I wrapped myself in my robe, but when I went to tie it, I realized that I’d left the sash tied to the bed last night. A dirty flash of the night before came to me and I grinned to myself a little. I came out into the bedroom, expecting to find Zuko there.

Instead, I found myself staring at Wu-Ten, who was busy untying my sash from the bed frame, a sour look on his face.

“Oh!” I said, closing the robe with one hand. “I didn’t know you were in here.”

“As the Fire Lord’s valet, part of my duties are to clean up after him, and take out the trash he tosses aside,” he said blandly, tugging the sash free of the bed frame. “Do you need helped out, Captain?”

“What did you just say?”

Wu-Ten’s smile was a little too sharp, a little too smug. “Nothing. I’m just stating a fact. The Fire Lord has many duties to attend to. It’s my job to keep distractions from turning his head. I think we both know I’ve been lax in my duties lately. Frankly, I think it’s time he turns his attention to worthier pursuits. Don’t you?”

My eyes narrowed as I clutched at the robe, my hair dripping onto my shoulders. “Do you have a problem with me?”

“A problem? That would indicate I thought anything of you at all,” Wu-Ten said coldly, tossing the sash at me. I caught it with one hand, glaring at him as he gathered up the clothing and walking out the door. My rebuttal died on my lips. Anger suffused me. Where the hell did that pompous ass get off?

I grabbed my clothing out of the drawer and marched back into the bathroom to get dressed. When I came out again, the room was still empty. I walked slowly into the kitchen, finding Sokka and Toph slumped at the table, cups of hot coffee at their elbows. Neither of them moved, but I heard Toph mumble something about death.

Katara was cooking eggs and rice and Aang was chopping up oranges and squeezing them into a large pitcher. He looked a bit rougher around the edges than usual, his face and head both a bit stubbly. Katara looked entirely too healthy and cheerful for my taste. I wanted to strangle her just looking at her. I sat down next to Toph and grabbed the coffee she was ignoring, downing it in one long, scalding gulp.

It didn’t help my fuzzy head, but at least it was bracing.

“We look like the walking dead,” I croaked as Katara put food in front of me. My stomach turned over, but I forced myself to pick up chopsticks.

“I feel like someone sat on my face,” Sokka said, lifting his head and revealing a pair of blood shot eyes.

“That was me, remember?” Toph said, her face still resting on the table.

“Oh. Right,” Sokka replied and put his head back down. I ate slowly, afraid my stomach would protest in a colorful way, but I managed to keep everything down.

When Zuko wandered in, I immediately thought of what Wu-Ten had said to me, and my ears burned. I should tell Zuko about it. I wanted to, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it front of the others and the opportunity to get him alone never surfaced. The morning passed in a hangover haze, but I managed to make it through. We cleaned up from the party and then around lunch a messenger from the governor of Ember Island showed up, asking for Zuko and Aang’s presence. Something about the ships Zuko was selling, and a trade agreement. My head hurt too much to pay attention.

I offered to go with them, but Zuko took one look at my pale face and told me to stay, insisting that he would be perfectly safe with the Avatar watching his back. I couldn’t argue with that, and kissed him gently as he left. I watched him get on Appa and then they were flying off into the distance, leaving me with the others.

“That party really cleaned us out,” Katara said, looking in the larder as I walked back into the kitchen. Sokka and Toph were looking slightly better than they had at breakfast. “I’m going to head into the village and do a little shopping. You guys want to come?”

Sokka shrugged. “Sure. I wanna get a new pair of boots anyway. Toph?”

“Beats sitting around here all day,” Toph said as I blew out a breath. “You coming, Suki?”

I nearly said yes, but a yawn interrupted me. “I think I’m gonna stay. Maybe take a nap. I didn’t sleep very well last night.”

“Not surprising, I heard you and Zuko going at it most of the night,” Toph said with a cheeky grin.

“It wasn’t half the night!” I protested, feeling my face burning, wondering what exactly Toph had heard. Most of the night was a bit of a blur, but I was fairly certain that Zuko and I hadn’t been trying to be quiet. Stupid horny drunks that we were.

“Hey, it was his birthday. Give the guy a break,” Sokka said, surprising me. I rolled my eyes and watched as they got ready to leave. They waved goodbye, leaving me to wander back to the bedroom. I pulled the shades and curled up in the bed, my head throbbing as I snuggled down into the bed covers and into a blissful sleep.

I wasn’t sure what woke me; the noise of the door softly clicking closed, or the sudden feeling that I was no longer alone in the shuttered room. I came to with a little gasp, my whole body tensing as the feeling of wrongness in the air hit me full force.

“Hello?” I said, forcing the words through the fog of sleep and the tight feeling in my throat. “Zuko? Is that you, baby?”

“He’s not here. None of them are here. We’re alone.”

My eyes widened in the darkened room, as Wu-Ten’s cold voice filled the air. It made the hair on the back of my arms and neck stand up. Blind panic reared in me, all of my senses screaming DANGER DANGER DANGER!

I reached for the fan at my waist, and my fingers came up empty, forgetting in my confusion that I hadn’t been carrying it all week. I sat up, swinging my legs over the side of the bed, adrenaline hitting me and banishing the last of my hangover haze.

“Wu-Ten? What are you doing in here?” I asked sharply, as he walked over to the window and pulled the bamboo shade up. I winced in the sudden flood of sunlight, turning my face away for a moment.

“I was watching you sleeping.”

Fear prickled up my spine instantly, and I knew that my instincts hadn’t been wrong. I stood like a shot, turning to see the portly valet turning to look at me with a smug expression on his face. He looked excited, his tongue flitted against his lips nervously.

“What the hell are you doing, Wu-Ten? You should leave.”

He shook his head. “You don’t get to tell me what to do. Who do you think you are? You’re just a woman, a common slut who spread her legs for the Fire Lord. A good sub shuts her fucking mouth and I’ve had just about enough of yours.”

My eyes widened, as the hatred rolled off of him. He looked like he had been dying to say this to me for months. I had known he hated me, despite Zuko’s insistence otherwise. But _this!_

I glanced at the door, but he was closer, darting forward to block it.

“Wu-Ten, whatever you think you’re doing…”

“He doesn’t love you.”

“What?” It felt like the air had been punched out of me and I hated how small my voice was.

“The Fire Lord. He thinks he does, but he’s wrong. You know it too, don’t you? You know he only loves fucking you.”

I felt like I was going to throw up, as I stared at him in shock. “What the hell do you mean?”

“You know exactly what I mean. You’re only worth what’s between your legs,” Wu-Ten snapped at me. “Zuko only thinks he’s in love with you because you spread for him. That boy was so desperate for pussy I’m surprised he didn’t explode. I tried to give him advice. He didn’t take it. He’s confused. I, however, am not.”

“Get away from the door,” I commanded. “Or I swear–”

“You have to be taught your place,” he said, pushing back his sleeves as he walked toward me. “If he can’t see the truth, then I’ll make him see. I’ll show him what women are really for.”

“Move out of the way, you misogynistic piece of shit of I’m going to throw you through the wall,” I told him, rage filling me now.

“I’ll tell him you fucked me. That you begged for it on your knees.”

My lips curled over my teeth as my skin crawled as the lies poured of him. “He won’t believe you.”

“Of course he will,” Wu-Ten said, glaring at me in glee. “He already knows you’re a whore. Why else would he do the things he does to you?”

And then he lifted his hand and slapped me. _Hard._

I hadn’t been expecting it. I _should_ have blocked it, but my shock at his disgusting tirade had slowed my reflexes just enough for him to get in a single blow. It snapped my head to the side, the sting of it sinking through my cheek, making me grit my teeth.

“You liked that, didn’t you?” he sneered at me and lifted his hand for another blow.

I caught his wrist, spun him around and jacked his arm up behind his back so hard I heard the bones in his elbow break. He cried out in pain.

“You liked that, didn’t you?” I snarled into his ear and then shoved him away from me. He immediately turned on me with a bellow of rage, running at me at full speed.

I didn’t hesitate, didn’t stop to think, and probably wouldn’t have cared even if I had. As Wu-Ten came charging at me, I spun, delivering a solid kick to his chest that sent him flying through the window. The glass shattered, the frame splintered and he cried out as he went through them both, tipped over the ledge and fell out of sight. I heard a distant thud, and a squawk of pain.

I calmly walked over the window and looked down into the yard below, though my heart was pounding, my ears ringing with his poisonous words, and the threats he had slung at me. Wu-Ten was lying on his stomach in a clump of sea oats, surrounded by large chunks of glass. He was bleeding as he moaned and tried to move.  The wind seemed to have been knocked out of him.

“Fucking bitch…” I heard him moan.

“WU-TEN! WHAT HAPPENED?”

My gaze snapped up to see Appa landing in the yard a few feet from Wu-Ten’s pathetic lump in the grass. Zuko jumped off of the bison and landed next to his valet, who whimpered and pointed a shaky arm in my direction.

“She attacked me…”

Zuko’s gaze wandered up to me, a shocked look on his face. He took in the split window frame, the broken glass—and the red hand print burning on my face.

“Suki? What–?” he started, seeing the expression on my face. Then he looked down at Wu-Ten, and immediately his expression went from shocked concern to furious rage. “YOU MOTHERFUCKER!”

He grabbed Wu-Ten by the back of the neck and hauled him to his feet, slamming him against the side of the house.

“Zuko–!” Aang said, alighting in the grass with a whoosh of wind, and holding out his hands. But Zuko wasn’t listening.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER? ANSWER ME!” Zuko snarled, his hand around Wu-Ten’s throat. The valet choked, his face turning even redder. I turned away from the window, ran across the room, pausing only long enough to unlock the bedroom door, and then I was running down the stairs and out of the house. I skidded to a halt in the grass beside Aang. My eyes were burning.

“Answer me, _what did you do?_ ” Zuko said through his teeth as Wu-Ten’s tongue protruded. Aang caught Zuko’s arm.

“He can’t breathe!” he said, but Zuko ignored him.

“Zuko, stop!”

My voice seemed to reach him at last, and his death grip on Wu-Ten’s fat throat eased up. Wu-Ten gasped, and slid down the side of the house, landing on his ass as he clutched his throat and coughed so hard I thought he might throw up.

Zuko stood over him like an angry tigerdillo, ready to pounce on its prey. His whole body was alive with rage. It was Aang who turned to me, his hazel eyes filled with concern as he clocked the pink hand print on my face, and the fear in my eyes.

“Suki, what happened?” he asked gently.

“He tried to…” But I couldn’t say the words. I didn’t want to believe them and I honestly wasn’t sure _what_ the valet had intended. “I was asleep and he came in and locked the door. He started saying awful things to me. When I tried to leave the room, he hit me. I… I defended myself. I didn’t mean to kick him out the window,” I said truthfully, because I really hadn’t, but I was having trouble feeling badly about it.

“She’s…lying…” Wu-Ten started, but Zuko, who had been listening to every word I’d said, punched the wall beside Wu-Ten’s head with a fist that was suddenly surrounded by a corona of flames. Wu-Ten flinched and whimpered, cradling his arm to his chest.

“Don’t call her a liar,” he said in a cold voice that was totally at odds with the fire he had conjured. “What did he say to you, Suki?”

I glanced at Aang and then down at the ground, feeling my whole face burning. “Nothing. I… I… Nothing.”

“Holy shit balls…what the hell happened?” Sokka’s voice rang out, making me jump. I squeezed my eyes shut, wincing. I looked up at and saw Katara, Sokka and Toph, carrying bags of groceries from the village market, come around the side of the house. It was bad enough with Aang here, but I couldn’t stand the thought of the others being here right now.  

“Wu-Ten attacked Suki,” Aang said and I saw Sokka drop his bag on the ground.

“HE DID WHAT?”

“She kicked him out the window,” Aang said and I heard a hint of pride in the Avatar’s voice that surprised me.

“Hell yeah, Suki,” Toph said in awe, putting down her bag.

“Explain yourself, Wu-Ten,” Zuko said, his voice loud and sharp. “NOW!”

I saw Wu-Ten’s mean eyes flit from Zuko to me and then back to the others. There was a smug expression on his face, one I knew well, and I felt a sudden jump of fear and panic in me.

“Zuko… It’s… Zuko, we should…” I started, and Wu-Ten’s nasty smile was warning enough.

“Do you know what she lets him do to her?” Wu-Ten said, and I clenched my hands into fists, my nails digging into my palms. “He uses her like a common whore. He ties her up, spanks her, hits her, uses her and she begs him! SHE BEGS HIM FOR MORE! She’s nothing, Zuko. NOTHING. I was going to show you how worthless she was.”

I felt everyone’s eyes on me and could only stare at the scorch mark Zuko’s fist had left on the weathered siding. I was too numb to move, too stunned by everything that had happened to open my mouth and defend myself.

“SHUT UP, WU-TEN!” Zuko started, but Wu-Ten laughed.

“I’m not lying and you know it,” he sneered. “She’s nothing, Zuko. You need to learn that. She’s beneath you. I was going to show you how unfaithful she was. I was going to put her in her place! I WAS DOING IT FOR YOU!”

Zuko’s fists tightened as I felt the shocked silence his words brought down upon all of my friends. I couldn’t believe the words that came out of him, the hatred, the lies, the poison.

Zuko’s voice was hot and sharp, like a needle point, stabbing at the air with strength of his rage. “Suki is the Captain of the Kyoshi Warriors. She is one of the finest fighters in all of the four nations. I trust her with my life. She has my respect, my loyalty and my love. She’s earned it a thousand times over. She is far from nothing. But _you?_ I had no idea. I had no idea, Wu-Ten, that you were this sick. I made excuses for the cold way you treated her. I took your advice and I trusted you. I see now that I was wrong. That I should have listened to Suki when she told me that you made her uncomfortable. I should have listened to her instincts. She’s a better judge of character than I am. I failed to protect her and you hurt her. You hurt the woman I love. The woman I intend to marry.”

My hand lifted to cover my shocked my mouth. Zuko’s words rang in my ears.

Wu-Ten’s face was turning white as he stared at Zuko’s face, and then saw the Avatar, and the rest of my friends glaring at him. “I know what you intend, Zuko. I found the ring. That’s why I had to show you. You’re just confused.”

“I think you’re the confused one, Wu-Ten.”

“She was asking for it. I didn’t do anything to her you haven’t done.”

“Zuko has never attacked me,” I said, my voice wavering a little.

“He hits you.”

“What?” Sokka asked in an undertone. “What the hell does he keep going on about?”

“Mind your business, Sokka,” Zuko growled as I backed up.

“She was begging me for it,” Wu-Ten insisted, looking past Zuko and meeting my horrified gaze. “She knows the truth. She knows what she is! What all women are!”

“Toph? Metalbend some handcuffs. And a muzzle. I think we’ve heard enough,” Aang said, as I turned and ran out of there.

I couldn’t listen to his accusations anymore. I had to get out of there, just to get away from the questioning eyes of my friends, and Zuko’s blazing anger.

I didn’t hear anyone shout after me, but it was hard to hear over the echoes of Wu-Ten’s growling accusations in my ears, and the slap of my bare feet on the stone steps. I hit the beach and stumbled a little in the thick sand. I caught myself, and dug my feet in, trying to find something to which I could ground myself. All of it was shifting sand, and confused lies.

I took off down the beach, alone, the wind pushing at my hair.  I stared at the waves crashing to shore, my insides aching as the sting in my face faded to nothing. I doubted I would even bruise. It wasn’t the pain of the slap that had shocked me. It was the violence of it, the violation and suddenness. I hadn’t expected it.

I felt dirty. Used. Ashamed. Wu-Ten’s words rang in my ears.

A little voice in the back of my head was telling me horrible things as I walked along the beach, my arms clasped around my middle.  Was he right? _Had_ I been asking for it? I let Zuko hit me. I enjoyed it, didn’t I? What made Wu-Ten hitting me any different?

I didn’t like those thoughts. They felt wrong, and disgusting, but I was too upset to untangle them from the truth, to put them into words that made sense in my head. I just knew that I felt violated, and ashamed. All of our friends knew what I let Zuko do to me.

No, not let. _Let_ wasn’t right. I wanted him to do those things to me. I enjoyed them. I knew that, but why did Wu-Ten make me feel like I didn’t, all of a sudden?

I felt, rather than heard, a figure approaching me from behind. I turned on the person following me, fists lifted in a defensive stance, only to find myself staring into Sokka’s bright blue eyes. Eyes filled with concern, and no shortage of anger. I felt my ears glow red.

He’d heard it all, every word out of Wu-Ten’s disgusting mouth.

“Whoa! Friend, not foe!” Sokka started, lifting his hand and stilling, as if I might dart at any moment. I slowly lowered my arms and took a deep breath, not realizing how tense I’d gotten the moment I’d realized I was being followed.

“Sorry, Sokka.”

“It’s okay,” he said in his easy way, walking closer to me, but keeping his distance. He seemed to sense my state of mind, as erratic and confused as it was, because he didn’t try to crowd me or touch me. I think he knew how I might have felt about that. “I came to check on you.”

“I’m fine,” I said tightly, and Sokka’s disbelieving look was scathing. I turned away, feeling heat in my face.

“He hits you.”

“He got in one cheap shot. I’ve had worse in practice,” I said bitterly.

“I’m not talking about the valet, although seriously—fuck that guy.” Sokka’s words hit me like an emotional battering ram. I turned on him, face paling. Sokka’s jaw was clenched and I could see his anger in the white streaks in his cheeks. I stared at him, unsure of what to say. “Is what that pile of shit said true though? Do you and Zuko have some kind of a kinky thing going on? Does he hit you, Suki?”

“It’s not like that, Sokka.”

“So Wu-Ten was lying.”

“No, he wasn’t lying, he just…”

“He just what? Either Zuko hits you or he doesn’t.”

“Sokka, it’s… It’s none of your business… It’s between Zuko and me and–”

Sokka stepped a little closer, but still kept his distance, as if afraid I might bolt. “Suki, if he’s hurting you, then it is my business. You’re my friend. Someone I care about. Someone I love. We’re not together anymore, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still care about you as a friend, and if Zuko is hurting you, I need you to know that you can tell me.”

“Sokka–”

“I can’t believe he’d do that. I mean, I knew the guy had a dark streak, but he’s been good for a long time, but if he’s hurting you, I will kill him.”

I put my hand on Sokka’s arm, stilling him. “No, Sokka, please. You don’t understand, okay? The situation isn’t like that. It’s… Zuko and I… Sometimes our sexual relationship includes physical stuff.”

Sokka’s brow furrowed. “Like what?”

I didn’t want to tell him, but I knew if I didn’t set him straight he might go punch Zuko in the face. “Like sometimes I like it when he spanks me.”

His brows flew up and then furrowed again as his mouth formed a small circle. “Oh.”

“Zuko has _never_ hurt me. He never would. Everything we do is completely consensual. We’re very careful. It’s perfectly safe. We have rules and boundaries and if I ask him to stop, he does. I trust Zuko. Wu-Ten… He, I don’t know, he doesn’t see the difference, I guess, between violence and…trust. I don’t know how to put it.”

“And…you’re into that?” Sokka asked slowly, a tone of surprise in his voice.

I pushed my hair back behind one ear, my face a little hot. I knew I was blushing. “Yes.”

“You weren’t into that with me, though. Were you?”

“No. I guess I wasn’t. But you and I had a different relationship, Sokka.”

“Clearly.” I glared at him and the wiped his hand down his face. “Sorry. Okay, I’m not judging. I mean, Toph and I do some pretty kinky shit too, so it’s not like I have any room to talk.”

I felt a small smile cross my lips. “You do, do you?”

It was Sokka’s turn to look embarrassed. “Toph’s kind of wild.”

“You’re her little bitch.”

Sokka shrugged. “Pretty much.”

“You’re in love with her.”

Sokka started, and then looked around as if Toph might materialize out of the sand at any moment. “Don’t say that! I’d never hear the end of it!”

“But you are.”

“Maybe,” he admitted and then rubbed at the back of his neck. “And you love Zuko.”

“I do.”

“Okay, good. Then I won’t punch him out. So long as he’s not hurting you. So long as you know what you’re doing. I trust your judgment.”

“Thank you,” I said, and my jumbled thoughts suddenly felt a bit clearer. Wu-Ten’s attack had thrown me into a panic, I realized. It had made me second-guess myself, my feelings and Zuko’s feelings. Talking to Sokka, explaining, had helped a little. “He makes me happy.”

“I think you make him happy too, if it helps,” Sokka said as he put a gentle hand on my shoulder. The impulse to get away from him didn’t rise again and I realized he’d helped calm me a little. “I’ve never seen that guy smile as much as I have the last two weeks. He loves you, Suki.”

“You don’t think it’s weird?”

Sokka shrugged. “Toph likes me to suck her toes. I don’t know from weird.”

“I didn’t need to know that,” I laughed.

“Me neither,” he said and slung an arm around my shoulders. “Come on, let’s head back. I think Toph was going to rip Wu-Ten a new asshole and I’d kind of like to see it. That guy is a serious misogynist. He said some nasty shit about women.”

“Where’s Katara?” I asked as we walked. I’d been almost certain it would have been Katara checking on me instead of Sokka.

“Umm… Well, you kind of broke Wu-Ten’s arm, so she was healing him.”

“Oh.”

“She should have let him suffer, but you know my sister.” I nodded as we approached the steps to the beach house. Sokka stopped me in my tracks though. “If he ever does hurt you, I will kill him. I need you to know that.”

“Big talk, Boomerang Dick,” a voice behind us said, making us both start and turn toward the source. It was Toph, who had crept up on us so quickly I didn’t doubt that she’d been riding a wave of sand moments before. She skidded to a halt, smirking at us. “I call him that cuz he has a curve in his di–”

“Yeah, Suki remembers,” Sokka interjected. “What’s up, Toph?”

“Zuko’s looking for Suki. Hey!” she called over her shoulder. “She’s down here!”

I felt a nervous flutter in my stomach, though _why_ , I couldn’t say. I had seen how angry Zuko was at Wu-Ten though. What if he was angry at me? What if he really did think I’d led Wu-Ten on or something?

It was a stupid thought, but I couldn’t help thinking it.

“It’s gonna be okay,” Sokka said.

“Yeah, it’s all good,” Toph said. “I punched the shit out of that slimeball and Zuko just about took his head off. It was pretty sweet.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“You kidding? It was my pleasure. That guy hates women. He called me a blind slut. Pretty I sure I cracked one of his teeth,” Toph shot at her with a grin and then glanced back at someone over her shoulder. “Come on, Sokka. I think they need to talk.”

Sokka caught my eye and then leaned in and kissed my cheek. I appreciated the gesture, though I saw the look on Toph’s face when she heard the smack. She wasn’t as indifferent to Sokka as she pretended to be.

But that was none of my business.

Sokka started up the steps as I saw Zuko coming down them. His face was a blank mask as he spotted me, his lips tightening a little. Sokka said something to him in a low voice, words I couldn’t hear. Zuko nodded at him and Sokka clapped him on the shoulder. Harder than necessary.

I sighed a little, as Toph and Sokka retreated up the steps, leaving me and Zuko alone.

He stopped awkwardly in front of me, his fist bouncing on his thigh. I tried to look into his eyes, but I found that I couldn’t. I looked down at my bare feet in the sand, feeling… I didn’t even know.

Confused didn’t quite cover it.

“Are you okay?” Zuko finally asked, and I could hear the shake in his voice, the fear and regret and concern.

I looked up and briefly met his gaze. “Yes. I’m fine.”

“ _Are_ you?” There was a catch in his voice and I knew what it meant, what he was asking. I looked up again, meeting his gaze with a steady intensity.

“Yes. He just slapped me. Nothing else.”

Zuko swallowed, and a tiny bit of the tension in his body eased out of him. I knew what he’d been afraid of, and I also knew that if Wu-Ten had gone after another woman, someone who hadn’t been trained in the art of defense since childhood, he might have done a lot more than a slap. He might have…

I cut off the thought, sickened by it, feeling revulsion crawl across my skin. I wasn’t that hypothetical girl and never would be. I was a Warrior of Kyoshi, and I had kicked that piece of shit out of a window for putting his hands on me.

“I’m so sorry. Baby, I’m so sorry…”

“Zuko…”

“I should have listened to you about Wu-Ten. You were right. He did hate you, and for some reason I just couldn’t see it. I can’t believe anyone would hate you and I don’t understand why he does. He’s sick. It makes _me_ sick, and I’m sorry I didn’t see it. I’m sorry he put his hands on you,” Zuko said, gently touching my cheek. There wasn’t a mark now, but that didn’t matter. Not to Zuko.

I sighed and leaned into the heat of Zuko’s callused, familiar hands. Hands that were gentle when I needed them to be, and rough when I wanted.

“You don’t think he was right about me? That I’m beneath you? That I was asking for it?”

“No! He’s disgusting, Suki!” he said heatedly, his eyes blazing in the dying sunlight. “That things he said… I can’t even believe it. I should have seen it. Don’t listen to a word out of his mouth. It’s all poison. He seems like he has a serious problem with women. I wouldn’t take it personally.”

I touched my face. “It felt a little personal.”

“It’s my fault…”

“I didn’t think he would do something like that either, Zuko. Don’t blame yourself.”

“But I do. I told him too much. He…he reminded me a bit of my uncle, you know? And he was so willing to listen. I just… I put my trust in him and I shouldn’t have. I… I don’t think like he does, Suki. I need you to know that. I don’t think you’re a plaything or something. And I’ve never struck you without your permission and I’ve never wanted to hurt you. He intended to hurt you, really _hurt_ you.” He pressed his lips to my forehead, holding me close for a long moment.

“Zuko…”

“We can stop,” Zuko said softly. “We don’t have to ever do any of those things again, if it makes you uncomfortable, or ashamed, or feel abused. I would _never_ want to make you feel that way, and if I have, I’m sorry. He’s wrong. I don’t see you as beneath me. I value you. I want to make you happy. It’s all I want.”

I could see the fear in his eyes, the anxiety that had driven him to Wu-Ten for advice in the first place resurfacing. Though I had made it known how much I enjoyed being dominated in the bedroom, a part of Zuko was still afraid that I didn’t.

“You’ve never made me feel any of those things. You stop when I ask you to. You ask me before you do anything, you make sure I’m comfortable, and you take care of me afterward. You make me feel loved. Worshiped,” I said with a small smile. “I’ve never felt threatened or endangered in your arms, Zuko. I feel alive and loved.”

Zuko cradled my face in his hands, searching my face.

“I feel the same way about you. Suki, being with you is like nothing else I’ve ever experienced. It’s not the sex…not really. That part is phenomenal, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not what I love most about our relationship. It’s the trust. You trust me, perfectly, and that means more to me than you can know. I’ve never had that, with anyone. Everyone always makes me feel like I’m on the precipice of a mistake, even Aang, sometimes. But you? You trust me to catch you, to take care of you, to know where the line is before you have to draw it yourself. I love pleasuring you, I love giving you what you need, and taking care of you. The amazing part is, you don’t _need_ me to take care of you, but you _let_ me. You _let me_ , and watching you give up that control is… It’s so incredibly powerful, Suki. It makes me love you even more than I already do, and it makes me want to protect and please you even more.”

I felt tears in my eyes. We hadn’t put our feelings into words before, though I had felt them powerfully enough and known, on some level, that he felt the same way that I did about our relationship. It helped to hear it out loud though, to know that I made him feel that way, that he made me feel that way.

I wiped back tears and pressed my head to his chest. His arms went around me and he held me tightly to his chest, whispering soothing words into my ear as his hand stroked down my hair.

I felt safe and warm in his arms, completely loved and comfortable in my skin, with who I was, with how he made me feel, with my sexuality. Being with Zuko had opened me up in ways that I didn’t know were possible. He made me understand myself more, and I think I did the same for him.

“I love you,” I said into his shirt, holding on to him tightly.

“I love you too,” he said and tilted back my face. He searched my eyes, a small smile on his lips. “I’m sorry Wu-Ten told everyone about…things…”

“It’s not your fault. What did you do with him?”

“Katara set and healed his arm, and then Aang took him to a jail cell in the village. He assaulted you, and I won’t stand for it. I also reminded him that, as a servant in the palace, talking about the private affairs of the Royal Family, even idle gossip, is considered treason and will land him a lengthy prison sentence.”

“Can you do that?”

“He signed a privacy agreement when he was hired as my valet, so yes, I can. The contract is binding for life, even after loss of employment in the palace, which is good, because I fired his ass. He’s lucky I don’t kill him for putting his hands on you.”

“I could have handled him myself,” I said, giving him a mischievous smile.

“Well, you _did_ kick him out a two-story window and broke his arm.”

“Shame I didn’t break his fat neck,” I replied as Zuko kissed my forehead.

“My Warrior,” Zuko said warmly, and then his expression grew grim. “Seriously, I’m sorry for dismissing your feelings about him. I should have realized how he felt about women. When I first went to him for advice… Well, he basically told me to use you.”

“He did?”

Zuko nodded his head. “But that wasn’t what I wanted to do. When we started dating, he seemed annoyed at first, but I thought that was just because I didn’t take his advice. He never said anything about you in front of me though. He never gave away that he thought those things… He’s wrong about all of it. I need you to know that.”

“I do know that, but thank you for saying it.”

Zuko held me tightly, stroking my hair for a long time. He seemed in no hurry to get back and I felt the same way. I didn’t want to face our friends at the moment. I just wanted to be with Zuko.

“Suki, may I ask you something?” he said after a few minutes, his voice vibrating through his chest.

“Ask me anything,” I said, tilting my head back. He cupped my face again, staring into my eyes. He seemed to make up his mind about something and stepped back, dropping to one knee.

It felt like my heart stopped as he took my hand. I suddenly remembered what Wu-Ten had said about a ring.

“You’ll have to forgive me, I sort of left the ring up in the bedroom… We can get it later.”

“Zuko… What are you doing?” I asked stupidly.

Zuko grinned at the shocked expression on my face. “I was waiting for the right moment, but… With you, every moment feels like the right moment. I waited too long to tell you I loved you and I’m not going to make the same mistake twice.”

“Oh boy…” I was finding it hard to breathe all of a sudden.

“Suki, would you marry me?” Zuko asked, his eyes full of shining hope.

I didn’t hesitate.

“Yes!”

Zuko shot to his feet, pulling me into his arms, our lips crashing together. Zuko caught my face in his hands and bent over me, kissing me long and slow as I clung to him. His hand wandered down my back, and cupped my ass.

I grinned against his lips and held on tightly. Screw what Wu-Ten thought. Screw what anyone thought. He was mine and I was his, in every single way.

If he wanted to tie me down forever, then I was more than happy to let him.

_(end)_


End file.
